Footwear retailer Brown Shoe Co. Inc. (BWS), said Friday its first-quarter profit dropped from last year as lower gross margins and restructuring charges offset a modest growth in sales. Nonetheless, excluding items, earnings increased from last year and easily topped Street estimates.
Moving forward, Brown Shoe raised its adjusted earnings and sales outlook for fiscal year 2012. Shares of the company are up 19 percent in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.
Brown Shoe said its quarterly sales edged up 1 percent from last year. At Famous Footwear, sales rose 1.3 percent from last year. Same-store sales at the segment was up 2.5 percent, compared to a 3.9 percent decline last year.
Wholesale operations sales grew 2.8 percent from a year ago. At Specialty Retail, sales slid 6 percent from last year, while same-store sales grew 2.6 percent.
The topline growth was offset by gross margin that slid to 38.2 percent from 40 percent in the prior year, and operating margin declined to 1.4 percent from 1.9 percent.
St. Louis, Missouri-based Brown Shoe posted first-quarter net earnings of $1.7 million or $0.04 per share, compared to $3.7 million or $0.08 per share last year.
Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $10 million or $0.23 per share, compared to $7 million or $0.16 per share in the prior year.
On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.09 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net sales for the quarter totaled $626.4 million, compared to $619.6 million last year.
Analysts expected sales of $600.70 million for the quarter.
Brown Shoe now expects fiscal year 2012 earnings of $0.53 to $0.65 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.83 to $0.95 per share. Sales are expected in the range of 2.57 billion to $2.59 billion.
Earlier, the company had estimated full year earnings of $0.57 to $0.75 per share, adjusted earnings of $0.78 to $0.92 per share, and sales of $2.55 billion to $2.58 billion.
Analysts currently expect full year earnings of $0.86 per share on revenue of $2.55 billion.
BWS is trading at $10.76, up $1.70 or 19.41%, on a volume of 1.7 million shares on the NYSE.
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