Teens Are Wind Beneath Eagle’s Wings
Teens Are Wind Beneath Eagle’s Wings : Fortunately, investors shopped for the shares of American Eagle Outfitters on Wednesday after the company reported excellent fourth-quarter earnings.
Profit for the Pittsburgh-based retailer jumped 81% to $ 59.3 million, or 28 cents a share, up from $ 32.7 million, or 16 cents a share, in the same period a year ago. Except for one time charges related to weakness of the company’s 28 stores play a Martin + Osa, which the company intends to close, and American Eagle Outfitters (AEO – news – people) earned 33 cents per share, matching estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.Sales for the period ending on January 30 came to $ 972 million, an increase of 7% to $ 905.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2008, beating the street sales of $ 966.1 million forecast. Same-store sales, a key indicator of retail performance, and jumped by 5% in the quarter.
For the first quarter of 2010, and American Eagle said it expects to earn between 15 cents and 17 cents per share. Analysts expect profit of 15 cents per share.
Since the beginning of economic recession, and American Eagle has benefited from the reduction of consumer shopping preferences are more expensive than competitors such as Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF – news – people). Reported strong quarterly results, shares of American Eagle gained $ 1.03, or by 6%, to $ 18.18 on Wednesday in morning trading.
And according to The Wall Street Strategies analyst Brian Sozzi, the decision to terminate Martin + Osa brand was a good one for American Eagle. The analyst believes that the company is more appropriate to focus on the younger market with its stores and named the brand 77kids children, rather than 25 years of age and older from the market, which aimed to reach, with Martin + Osa.
“The truth is that [Martin + Osa] lack the scale and the share of mind to generate profits and take advantage of the opportunity that existed with this key client,” says Sozzi. “77kids will allow the company to create an early stage into account the share of the American Eagle brand, with this key client basis with the company growing in the teenage years.”
Other companies were mixed on Wednesday in morning trading. Collective Brands (PSS – news – people) fell $ 1.59, or 6.6%, to $ 22.41 after the company reported a small quarterly loss, but said it would close 15 stores in the coming year. Outfitters in the urban areas (URBN – news – people) rose 66 cents, or 1.8% to $ 36.50; and Aeropostale (Arrow
