March 18 (Reuters) - Casual Male Retail Group Inc (CMRG.O) swung to a fourth-quarter profit that beat market expectations, as the men's apparel retailer tightly managed costs and inventories to offset declining sales.

Photo: www.casualmale.com

For fiscal 2010, the retailer, which operates the Casual Male XL and Rochester Big and Tall Stores, forecast a profit of 23 cents to 26 cents a share, on sales in the range of $385 million to $395 million.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 23 cents a share on revenue of $389.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Casual Male posted a fourth-quarter net profit of $3.6 million, or 8 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $108.0 million, or $2.61 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue at the company, which makes clothing for bigger and taller men, slipped 10 percent to $110.7 million.

Analysts were expecting the company to earn 5 cents a share on revenue of $110.7 million.

As a result of stringent cost and inventory controls, merchandise margin improved by 890 basis points.

Shares of the Canton, Massachusetts-based company closed at $3.91 Wednesday 17 March on Nasdaq.

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