Comparable Store Sales Decrease 11.7% in Second Quarter

Gross margin was 28.9% of net sales for the 13-week period ended July 29, 2017, compared with 33.0% for the 13-week period ended July 30, 2016. The decrease was mainly due to promotions and markdowns taken to liquidate excess and aged inventory, and de-leverage of logistics and store occupancy expenses associated with lower comparable store sales.

Net loss for the 13-week period ended July 29, 2017, was $3.2 million compared with net income of $6.5 million for the 13-week period ended July 30, 2016. Loss per share was $0.15 for the 13-week period ended July 29, 2017, compared with earnings per diluted share of $0.29 for the 13-week period ended July 30, 2016.

Jeff Rosenthal, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “We experienced a very difficult retail environment in the quarter, with a significant decline in transactions and resulting pressure on gross margin. Expenses were well controlled, while maintaining proper staffing and customer service levels in our stores. Looking forward, we expect the external environment to remain challenging, although we are encouraged with the progress we are making on our internal initiatives, most notably our new e-commerce website. Our early e-commerce sales have exceeded expectations and user feedback has been very positive. We will continue our efforts to grow our online business aggressively in the future, while continuing to improve our stores to provide a great overall customer experience.”

Fiscal 2018 Outlook

The Company is updating its guidance for Fiscal 2018 based on the following assumptions:

Continued soft sales for the remainder of the year due to a challenging retail environment.
A growing contribution of e-commerce sales, especially during the holiday season.
Gross margin pressure due to the promotional environment in our industry, the ramp-up of our e-commerce sales, and markdowns needed to reduce aged inventory.
Continued tight expense controls while maintaining adequate store staffing levels.

Based on these assumptions, the Company is updating its guidance with the following changes:

Earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.25 to $1.35, which compares with previous guidance of $2.35 to $2.55.
Comparable store sales in the negative mid to high single-digit range, which compares with previous guidance in the range of negative 1.0% to positive 1.0%.
A reduction in gross margin rate of 250 to 285 basis points, which compares with previous guidance of a reduction in gross margin rate of 55 to 75 basis points compared with Fiscal 2017.

jens_dev schreef: ↑18 augustus 2017, 08:47 Mall stocks, hé inversor (:
Laat het woord Amazon vallen en iedereen drukt op de verkoopknop.
Consensus gaat uit van stabiliserende/dalende omzet en fors dalende winst de komende jaren. Cijfers doen me een beetje aan Dillard's denken. Verder buyback en 17% van float zit short.

jens_dev schreef:https://www.marketwatch.com/story/hibbe ... bullytweet