UniFirst Corp (NYSE:UNF) stock rose 0.68% (As on June 29, 11:21:15 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company posted mixed result for the third quarter of FY 23. Net income decreased to $24.3 million from $25.1 million in the prior year, or 3.2%. EBITDA increased to $64.0 million compared to $60.3 million in the prior year, or 6.1%. The Company’s financial results for the third quarter of fiscal 2023 and 2022 included approximately $8.4 million and $11.4 million, respectively, of costs directly attributable to its CRM, ERP and branding initiatives. In addition, the Company incurred costs related to the acquisition of Clean Uniform during the third quarter of fiscal 2023 of approximately $0.7 million. The company continues to be focused as a Company on mitigating the cost pressures impacting the operations. The early days of the recently closed acquisition of Clean Uniform have been very constructive with initial efforts being focused primarily on retaining Clean’s most important assets, its people and its customers.  Cash and cash equivalents and Short-term investments totaled $69.3 million as of May 27, 2023.

UNF in the third quarter of FY 23 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.66, missing the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.79. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 12.7 percent to $576.67 million in the third quarter of FY 23, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue of $564.19 million. Core Laundry Operations revenues for the quarter increased 11.5% to $501.7 million. Organic growth of the segment, which excludes the effect of acquisitions and fluctuations in the Canadian dollar, was 7.8%. Operating margin of the segment decreased to 4.2% from 5.9%. Core Laundry Operations’ EBITDA margin decreased to 9.9% from 11.4%. The segment’s operating and EBITDA margin were also impacted by approximately $5.3 million of additional expense compared to prior year related to high healthcare claims and costs incurred related to a legal matter as well as higher merchandise and other operating costs as a percentage of revenues which are being impacted by the inflationary environment. Specialty Garments revenues for the quarter were $49.4 million, an increase of 19.9%, which was driven by growth in the segment’s cleanroom and North American nuclear operations.

Unifirst expects FY 2023 EPS to be in the range of $5.02-$5.37 versus the analyst consensus of $7.08. Unifirst expects FY 2023 revenue to be in the range of $2.22M-$2.23M versus the analyst consensus of $2.22M.