Urban Outfitters Earnings Hurt by Lower Markups, Higher Markdowns

Same-store sales, including direct-to-consumer sales, declined 1% year-over-year in the quarter. Same-store sales were up 15% at the company’s Free People stores and 2% at the Anthropologie stores. Sales at the namesake stores were down 7%.

Third-quarter sales were the highest in the company’s history for a third quarter, but gross profit dropped nearly 3%, from $292.29 million to $283.52 million, primarily due to lower initial merchandise markup followed by higher markdowns at the stores and store occupancy expense deleverage due to negative store comparable net sales, which were all primarily driven by the poor performance at the Urban Outfitters brand.

The company said it bought back 3.9 million shares in its third quarter and has 6.1 million shares remaining in its current repurchase authorization.

Urban Outfitters did not offer guidance, but the consensus estimates for the fourth quarter call for EPS of $0.62 on revenues of $979.63 million. For the full year, analysts are expecting EPS of $1.77 on revenues of $3.29 billion. Urban Outfitters issued an earnings warning on October 16 that fourth-quarter profits may be hurt by lower-than-expected sales.

The company’s stated goal to double sales by 2020 suggests a compound annual growth rate of around 15%, which is about double the company’s projected revenue growth this year compared to last year.

Shares were down about 5.2% in after-hours trading Monday, at $29.25 in a 52-week range of $29.11 to $40.67. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of $37.10 before the results were announced.

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