Urban Outfitters' Earnings Report Lives Up To The Hype!

Urban Outfitters, Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) had already hit a new 52-week high today ahead of its earnings report.  Now that high is going even higher after the lifestyle specialty retail company announced net income of $61 million for the quarter.  Earnings per share were $0.42 EPS and net sales rose by 11% over the same quarter last year to $676 million. Thomson Reuters had a consensus estimate of $0.33 EPS and $671.6 million in sales.

We did not see formal guidance, but CEO Richard A. Hayne said, “As we head into the second half of the year we plan for gradual year over year improvement in our business along with further tightening of our store inventories.”

Comparable retail segment net sales do include the direct-to-consumer channel, but this metric rose by 4% for the quarter while the comparable store net sales decreased 1%. The company noted on its units, “Comparable retail segment net sales at Free People and Urban Outfitters increased 12%, and 6%, respectively, while comparable retail segment net sales at Anthropologie were flat for the quarter. Direct-to-Consumer net sales increased 22% and wholesale segment net sales rose 17% for the quarter.”

The earnings headline was just too good for the bears to have a shot of winning the tug of war here.  Shares did close down 0.4% at $31.28 ahead of earnings after hitting a new 52-week high of $31.81 today.  Shares are now up over 6.5% at $33.35 so far in the after-hours trading session.

JON C. OGG