Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Our first question comes from Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs.
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs
Could you talk about your sales trends in October? Only because it seems like the business probably ended up a bit better at the end of the quarter than it seemed like you were alluding to at your analyst meeting.
My second question, just to get it out there, relates to the impact of the 53rd week. You mentioned the impact to gross margin, if you could break out how you see it impacting gross margin and the SG&A, that would be very helpful.
Phil Francis
Matt, this is Phil, I'll try the first one. At the timing of the analyst call, the quarter was as tough as the quarter got; we had stabilized very soon after that when we started to get some cold weather. I think implied in your question were instincts that the end of the query was a bit better than we were feeling at analyst day and that is true. Things did stabilize a little bit and cold weather helped a little bit and your instincts on that one are correct.
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs
In terms of the thinking about the 53rd week and you how it impacts; obviously it drives sales to some degree. Do you get leverage on cost of goods from that reported cost of goods from that?
Chip Molloy
The 53rd week, we will get some benefit in both margin and expenses. On the expense side, it's in the 5 to 10 range and on the margin side it is 15 to 20.
Matthew Fassler - Goldman Sachs
Finally, can you just give us a precise share count? I know that in the release you alluded to some carryover impact from the deal, but it would be helpful just to note that's a reduction from your fully diluted number, fully diluted average number reported in the quarter or whether it's reduction from the quarter ended share count that would help you.
Chip Molloy
The share count, we're at almost 131 million at the end of the quarter. We're expecting at the end of the fourth quarter to be around 129.2 million.
Operator
Your next question comes from Michael Baker - Deutsche Bank.
Michael Baker - Deutsche Bank
The fourth quarter outlook, $0.70 to $0.74, just trying to go through some of the math on some of the changes in State Line Tack and the MMI Holdings, et cetera. Can you just tell me, is the fourth quarter guidance different than you would have expected the fourth quarter to come in when you did your second quarter call? In other words, have you gotten a little bit more cautious? My math is maybe a $0.015 more cautious but I wanted to run that by you.
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