Genesco exceeds earnings guidance with conservative holiday performance

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Mar 12, 2017

Genesco on Friday reported $46.8 million in fourth quarter earnings from continued operations, or $2.40 per diluted share, beating last year’s numbers and expectations. Holiday selling, conservative markdowns, and share buybacks at a lower tax rate drove the increase in earnings.

Net sales for the quarter decreased 5% to $883 million from $932 million, and consolidated fourth quarter 2017 comparable sales, including same store sales and comparable e-commerce sales and catalog sales, were flat. Lids Sports Group and Schuh Group posted an 8% and 2% increase in comparable sales, respectively, and comparable sales fell 6% for Journeys and 1% for Johnston & Murphy Group.
 
Full year net sales fell 5% to $2.9 billion and earnings from continued operations were $97.9 million, or $4.85 per diluted share.

Robert J. Dennis, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Genesco, said, “Fiscal 2018 is off to a sluggish start, as expected, with the delayed income tax refunds clouding visibility into our sales trends early in the year. This plus some uncertainty with the direction of the overall retail economy causes us to be cautious about the current year. We expect adjusted diluted earnings per share for the year in the range of $4.40 to $4.55."
 
The guidance assumes comparable sales increases in the 2% to 3% range for the full year.