Burlington Stores (BURL) misses earnings, guidance expectations
Burlington Stores (NYSE: BURL) dipped slightly premarket Thursday after it missed earnings and revenue expectations for the first quarter.
The off-price department store company missed Q1 EPS estimates by $0.09, coming in at $0.93 per share, while revenue for the quarter came in at $2.13 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.18 billion. Comparable store sales increased by 4%.
At the time of writing, Burlington shares are down 0.5% at $166 per share.
The company's earnings were impacted by a rise in product sourcing costs, which came in at $187 million compared to $157 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
Merchandise inventories decreased by 2%, while comparable store inventories increased by 10% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
"Our first quarter comparable sales growth came in just below guidance. We had gotten off to a very strong start but then the trend fell off in March. We believe that this weakening in the trend was driven by two external and transitory factors – lower tax refunds and cooler weather leading up to Easter," said Michael O'Sullivan, BURL's CEO.
Looking ahead, BURL's FY2024 EPS guidance also came in below expectations, between $5.50 and $6, versus the consensus of $6.07.
By Sam Boughedda