shares of central garden  pet are trading higher after the company raised its annual adjusted earnings guidance and logged stronger bottomline results in its fiscal third quarter than analysts had been expecting the stock is up 16 at 4683 in midday trading on thursday shares have gained about 25 since the start of the year the lawn and pet supply company said it now expects adjusted earnings which strip out onetime items to be 255 a share or better for fiscal 2023 thats up from previous guidance for 235 a share or better the upward revision came in response to a strong performance in the fiscal thirdquarter coupled with early visibility into the fourth quarter the company said in the third quarter the walnut creek califbased company posted a profit of 831 million or 156 a share compared with 754 million or 139 a share in the same quarter a year ago adjusted earnings were 175 a share analysts surveyed by factset had been expecting 148 a share sales came in at 102 billion in line with analyst forecasts according to factset