Shares of Cintas Corp. CTAS, +0.54% rose 0.8% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the uniform rental company reported a fiscal second-quarter profit and revenue that topped expectations. Net income for the quarter to Nov. 30 rose to $284.9 million, or $2.62 a share, from $246.1 million, or $2.27 a share, in the year-ago period.
The FactSet consensus for earnings per share was $2.18. Total revenue fell 4.7% to $1.76 billion, but was above the FactSet consensus of $1.75 billion, as uniform rental and facility services revenue fell 4.0% to $1.41 billion and other revenue dropped 7.3% to $356.6 million. Gross margin as a percentage of revenue improved to 46.7% from 46.2%. The company said it isn’t providing financial guidance, given the uncertainties surrounding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The stock has gained 6.8% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.21% has advanced 11.4%.