Children's Place (PLCE) Tops Q3 EPS by 1c; Guides In-Line
Children's Place (NASDAQ: PLCE) reported Q3 EPS of $1.96, $0.01 better than the analyst estimate of $1.95. Revenue for the quarter came in at $455.9 million versus the consensus estimate of $475.57 million.
GUIDANCE:
Children's Place sees FY2015 EPS of $3.35-$3.45, versus the consensus of $3.40.
Jane Elfers, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We delivered adjusted earnings per diluted share of $1.93 in the third quarter compared to $1.82 in the third quarter of 2014. Comparable retail sales were negative (3.0%), primarily driven by unseasonably warm weather across most of the United States. Despite this challenge, we leveraged adjusted gross margin by 60 basis points, adjusted SG&A by 60 basis points and adjusted operating margin by 80 basis points compared to last year. Importantly, our inventories are well controlled, down 4.4% at quarter-end compared to last year."
Elfers stated, "Comparable retail sales are running positive 4.5% quarter to date, representing approximately 50% of our planned sales volume for the fourth quarter. Our quarter to date results are being driven by increases in key retail selling metrics despite continued weakness in traffic."
Elfers continued, "The systems investments we have made in state of the art assortment planning, inventory allocation and replenishment tools are delivering results. Our digital initiatives continue to gain traction; we implemented a new distributed order management system in the third quarter which is a key component of our omni-channel strategy. Our fleet rationalization initiative is on track and we expect to close 200 stores through 2017. Our wholesale and international businesses continue to expand; we recently announced a new partnership with El Palacio de Hierro to open free-standing stores and shop in shops in Mexico, with the first successful opening occurring last month. And today, our Board authorized a new $250 million share repurchase and declared a quarterly dividend. This new authorization and dividend reflect our Company's commitment to return excess capital to our shareholders."
Elfers concluded, "In summary, we believe the benefits we are realizing from our multi-pronged transformation strategy are enabling us to navigate through a difficult retail environment."
For earnings history and earnings-related data on Children's Place (PLCE) click here.