Aeropostale Inc. (NYSE: ARO) reported its third-quarter results Wednesday after the market close as -$0.45 in earnings per share and $452.9 million in revenue. This was against the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of -$0.45 in earnings per share and $444.73 million in revenue.
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The third quarter from the previous year had -$0.29 in earnings per share and $514.59 million in revenue, and it appeared to be the company’s eighth straight loss.
The company gave guidance for the fourth quarter as -$0.37 to -$0.44 in earnings per share, and the effective tax rate is projected to be 4%. Note that the earnings guidance does not include the impact of any store impairments, accelerated store closure costs or real estate consulting fees. The consensus estimates are -$0.36 in earnings per share and $590.38 million in revenue for the fourth quarter.
Julian R. Geiger, CEO of Aeropostale, said:
During my first 100 days back at Aeropostale, I have developed and begun executing my vision of, and game plan for, positioning and returning the Company to profitability. In that time, we have also continued to support and accelerate a variety of well conceived and executed merchandising, marketing, operational and financial initiatives that started before my arrival. We have made small but measureable steps in the right direction, which led to third quarter results that were in line with our guidance. We ended the quarter with inventories well-controlled, positioning us appropriately as we progress through the fourth quarter.
In this quarter, the company opened three new stores and closed 16. Aeropostale invested a total of $5.9 million in planned capital expenditures. It ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $109.2 million and long-term debt of $136 million.
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The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $4.21, but a few analysts weighed in on Thursday to evaluate where the company’s stock is heading. Wells Fargo might have said it best: “Black Friday turned red.” Several other analyst calls seen were as follows:
- Topeka Capital Markets maintained a Hold rating and lowered its price target to $2.50 from $4.00.
- Morgan Stanley maintained an Underweight rating and lowered its price target to $2.00 from $2.50.
- Stifel reiterated a Hold rating.
In Wednesday’s mid-afternoon trading, shares of Aeropostale were down about 27% at $2.33. This hit a 52-week low of $2.31, and the 52-week high was $9.95 in January.
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