Children’s Place’s stock set to fall after sales miss, downbeat outlook offsets profit beat
Shares of Children’s Place Inc. were indicated down more than 5% in premarket trade Tuesday, as a sales miss and downbeat outlook offset a profit beat, a new stock buyback program and a raised dividend. For the quarter to Feb. 3, the childrens apparel retailer swung to a net loss of $9.9 million, or 57 cents a share, from a profit of $34.2 million, or $1.86 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as a $51.8 million charge resulting from recent tax legislation, adjusted earnings per share came to $2.52, above the FactSet consensus of $2.49. Revenue rose to $570.0 million from $520.8 million, but was below the FactSet consensus of $572.0 million, as same-store sales growth of 8.2% missed expectations of an 8.5% rise. The company expects first-quarter EPS to rise to $2.12 to $2.22 from adjusted EPS of $1.95 a year ago, compared with the FactSet consensus of $2.39. Separately, the company set a new $250 million stock repurchase program and increased the quarterly dividend by 25% to 50 cents a share, with the new dividend payable April 27 to shareholders of record on April 16. The stock has gained 1.1% over the past three months through Monday, while the SPDR S&P Retail ETF has lost 1.8% and the S&P 500 has gained 1.3%.
Source : MTV
