Shares of Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage (NGVC) surged 12.37% in after-hours trading on Thursday following the release of the company's impressive third-quarter fiscal 2025 results and an upward revision of its full-year guidance. The natural and organic grocery retailer demonstrated strong performance across key metrics, surpassing analyst expectations and showcasing robust growth in comparable store sales.

Natural Grocers reported diluted earnings per share of $0.50 for Q3 FY2025, marking a significant 25% increase from $0.40 in the same period last year and beating analyst estimates of $0.49. The company's revenue grew to $328.7 million, up 6.3% year-over-year, despite facing a temporary setback due to a cybersecurity incident affecting its main distributor. This incident reportedly reduced sales by approximately $3.5 million to $4.0 million.

Notably, the company achieved a remarkable 7.4% growth in daily average comparable store sales, driven by a 4.8% increase in transaction count and a 2.4% rise in average transaction size. This performance underscores the growing consumer demand for natural and organic products. Furthermore, Natural Grocers saw improvements in profitability, with gross margin expanding by 70 basis points to 29.9% and operating margin increasing to 4.7% from 4.2% in the prior-year quarter. Based on these strong results, the company has raised its fiscal 2025 outlook, now projecting comparable store sales growth of 7.25% to 7.75% and diluted earnings per share of $1.90 to $1.95, up from previous estimates of 6.5% to 7.5% and $1.78 to $1.86, respectively.