Though same-store sales at Anthropologie fell by 13%, Urban Outfitters beat Wall St. expectations by a penny and sent their stock up after last week’s quarterly investor call.
From Reuters:
The apparel, accessories and home goods retailer, which has
seen sales fall even after offering huge discounts, said its
“business is well positioned to show improvement over the next
several quarters.”
“The environment is considerably more stable than it was in
the fourth quarter,” said Chief Executive Glen Senk in a call
with analysts.
The company’s shares rose as much as 8.2 percent on the
Nasdaq on Thursday (May 14).
And from Forbes:
For the period ended April 30, net income dropped to $30.8 million, or 18 cents per share. That compares with $42.6 million, or 25 cents per share, a year earlier.
Sales slipped 2 percent to $384.8 million from $394.3 million.
Combined same-store sales, which includes the company’s Anthropologie, Free People and namesake brands, declined 9.6 percent in the period.
Most of the articles about the Q1 results make the conjecture that higher income households (aka the Anthropologie shopper) were hurt more than the younger cheaper households (aka the Urban Outfitters shopper). I roll my eyes at that — where do Urban Outfitters fans get their money from, exactly? And Free People saw a jaw-dropping 23% same-store drop. Which demographic do analysts see shopping there?
Urban Outfitters is a relatively small company compared to some national chains so it’s a relief to see that their sales only dropped by $9.5 million between their four brands (Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, Terrain). Certainly the drop is not desirable but it’s survivable. I have not read anything about job cuts or pay cuts and I hope the company escapes that path altogether.
