Guess? (NYSE: GES) reported Q1 EPS of $0.21, $0.40 better than the analyst estimate of ($0.19). Revenue for the quarter came in at $520 million versus the consensus estimate of $497.44 million.

Carlos Alberini, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are extremely pleased with our first quarter performance, which significantly exceeded our expectations for revenues and profitability across all channels. We couldn’t be more proud of our teams around the world for their strong leadership, great teamwork and enormous effort during the last 15 challenging months. We delivered a 5.1% operating margin for the quarter, which, compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020, represented an expansion of over 900 basis points. During the quarter, our revenues contracted 3%, our gross margin expanded by nearly 700 basis points and our SG&A rate improved by over 200 basis points. This resulted in earnings per share of $0.18, versus a loss per share of $0.27 in fiscal 2020.”

Paul Marciano, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, added, “We firmly believe that this strong performance is a direct result of the transformational work we have done at the Company. This transformation touched every area of our business, including initiatives to elevate our brand and our product, the acceleration of our e-commerce business, the optimization of our global footprint and brand portfolio, the reorganization of our team globally and the execution of significant cost reductions throughout our operation.”

Mr. Alberini concluded, “We remain focused on executing our strategic business plan and now believe that in the current year we will deliver approximately 300 basis points of operating margin expansion versus fiscal 2020 and reach an operating margin of about 8.6%. Furthermore, we are well on track to achieve our long-term 10% operating margin target but now a year earlier than we anticipated. We believe that we are at an inflection point for our Company. We have a powerful global brand with great momentum, and I am so thankful that Paul and I have a strong team that is highly committed and excited to take the Company to the next level of growth, profitability and value creation.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Guess? (GES) click here.