Upcoming AWS Coverage on L Brands

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / January 11, 2017 / Active Wall St. blog coverage looks at the headline from Ascena Retail group, Inc. (NASDAQ: ASNA) as the Company announced on January 10, 2017, that its consolidated comparable sales decreased 3.1% over the holiday period, which covered the period starting November 19, 2016, through January 02, 2017. However, the Company's sales decline was better than market expectations of a 3.9%. Register with us now for your free membership and blog access at: http://www.activewallst.com/register/.

One of Ascena Retail's competitors within the Apparel Stores space, L Brands, Inc. (NYSE: LB), is estimated to report earnings on February 22, 2017. AWS will be initiating a research report on L Brands following the release of its next earnings results.

Today, AWS is promoting its blog coverage on ASNA; touching on LB. Get all of our free blog coverage and more by clicking on the links below:

http://www.activewallst.com/registration-3/?symbol=ASNA

http://www.activewallst.com/registration-3/?symbol=LB

For the combined November/December fiscal periods, Ascena's consolidated comparable sales were down 4.4%. During the holiday period, same-store sales at the Company's premium fashion declined 4.4%, sales at the segment's Ann Taylor stores fell 8.2%, while same-store sales dropped 1.8% at the segments LOFT stores.

During the reported period, Ascena's Value Fashion division reported a decline of 6.0% in comparable sales, consisting of a drop of 7.1% at Maurices and a 4.6% drop in dressbarn. For the holiday period, comparable sales at Ascena's Plus Fashion segment decreased 3.7% with a drop of 5.1% at Lane Bryant stores, which was offset by a 1.6% gain in the segments Catherines unit. The Company's kids fashion brands demonstrated growth of 2.7%.

David Jaffe, President and CEO, commented on the announcement:

"We were disappointed by our overall Holiday performance. Outside of discrete peaks during the holiday season, we experienced stronger than expected store traffic headwinds. As a result, we were forced into a more highly promotional stance in order to move through inventory in the face of softer overall consumer demand. At this juncture, we are positioning our full year outlook assuming that the trend we experienced through Holiday continues. We continue to aggressively work our Change for Growth enterprise transformation, and are focused on expense management opportunities to help us navigate the challenging environment."

Outlook

The Mahwah, N.J. headquartered Ascena, which previously provided guidance for FY17, in September 2017, stated that excluding restructuring, acquisition and integration related expenses, and non-cash ANN purchase accounting adjustments, the Company now expects non-GAAP EPS of $(0.11) to $(0.08) for Q2 FY17, ending January 28, 2017. Based on ongoing store traffic headwinds, Ascena is now forecasting FY17 non-GAAP EPS in the range of $0.37 to $0.42 for the 52-week period ending July 29, 2017, below its earlier forecast of non-GAAP EPS of $0.60 to $0.65. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.58 per share.

Stock Performance

At the closing bell, on Tuesday, January 10, 2017, following the announcement, Ascena Retail's stock tumbled 9.98%, ending the trading session at $5.41. A total volume of 11.37 million shares were traded at the end of the day, which was higher than the 3-month average volume of 4.60 million shares. The stock currently has a market cap of $1.06 billion. The Company's shares are trading at a PE ratio of 51.04.

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SOURCE: Active Wall Street