Skechers achieves another record performance in Q4 and fiscal 2016

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Feb 10, 2017

Skechers set new fourth quarter and full year net sales records at $764.3 million and $3.56 billion, respectively. The fourth quarter sales exceeded the company’s guidance range of $710 million to $735 million.
 
The quarterly sales growth was driven by a 17.1% increase in the international wholesale business and a 13.9% increase in the global retail business, which includes a 3.6% increase in comparable store sales. The wholesale business in China increased 48.5%, and the domestic wholesale business decreased 11.8%, offsetting the net sales increases.

 
Robert Greenberg, Skechers Chief Executive Officer, commented: “With record annual sales of over $3.56 billion, 2016 was another significant growth year for Skechers. We remained the number two sport footwear brand in the United States, and the number one walking brand, work brand, and dress/comfort casual brand*, and received the 2016 Plus Award for Children’s Design from Footwear Plus. We believe we are continuing to increase market share around the globe as we experience the strongest growth coming from our international businesses.
 
Fourth quarter gross profit was $356.2 million, or 46.6% of net sales, compared to $329.9 million, or 45.6% in the previous fourth quarter. Net earnings fell sharply to  $6.7 million and diluted net earnings per share were $0.04 compared to $0.19 in the prior year.

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Full year net earnings were $243.5 million and diluted net earnings per share were $1.57 per share.
 
David Weinberg, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer said, “We ended 2016 with positive domestic and international backlogs, and the highest incoming order rate for our domestic wholesale, subsidiary and distributor businesses in our history for both the fourth quarter and full year. Already in 2017, we’ve achieved mid-single-digit comps in January and high single-digit comps for the first week of February in our Company-owned retail stores on a worldwide basis. Based on these key indicators, combined with the many new products delivering later this year—including the domestic launch of You by Skechers in the second quarter—we believe the remainder of the year is on a favorable growth track, and we are well positioned for another record year.”
 
Following the record-setting performance, Skechers expects first quarter 2017 net sales to range from $1.050 billion to $1.075 billion and earnings per share to range from $0.50 to $0.55.