Upcoming AWS Coverage on Blue Nile

LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2017 / Active Wall St. blog coverage looks at the headline from the world's largest retailer of diamond jewelry, Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE: SIG) as the Company announced on January 11, 2017, its sales for the nine weeks ended December 31, 2016, (Holiday Season). Signet maintained the low-end of its earnings guidance and also revised same store sales outlook. Register with us now for your free membership and blog access at: http://www.activewallst.com/register/.

One of Signet Jewelers' competitors within the Jewelry Stores space, Blue Nile, Inc. (NASDAQ: NILE), is estimated to report earnings on February 09, 2017. AWS will be initiating a research report on Blue Nile following the release of its next earnings results.

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

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

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Holiday Season Summary

During the holiday season, Signet Jewelers same store sales decreased 4.6% compared to an increase of 5.1% in the nine weeks ended January 02, 2016. The Company stated that its in-store results were in-line with the jewelry market, but technical performance issues in Sterling's e-commerce platform were responsible to Signet's lower-than-expected results.

Mark Light, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, said:

"Signet's disappointing holiday results were driven principally by underperformance in its Sterling division e-commerce business. A preliminary view of market data suggests that the jewelry category was broadly flat to modestly down with in-store sales down mid-single-digits and e-commerce sales up double-digits."

Holiday Season FY17 Sales Summary

During the holiday season, Signet generated total sales of $1.94 billion, down $104.2 million or 5.1%, compared to $2.05 billion in the prior year. Total sales at constant exchange rates decreased 3.3% compared to the prior year. Merchandise categories and collections were broadly lower most notably in the mall and ecommerce selling channels, while select merchandise and other selling channels, such as diamond fashion jewelry, bracelets, earrings, Ever Us, Vera Wang Love, and the off-mall and kiosk selling channels, performed relatively well.

Signet's ecommerce sales in the holiday season were $142.5 million, down $3.5 million or 2.4% compared to $146.0 million in the prior year. The decline was due principally to the underperformance of recent enhancements to ecommerce systems across all Sterling Jewelers division store banners. These enhancements, implemented early in 2016, performed poorly when exposed to high holiday volume resulting in customer communications issues and purchasing disruptions.

Quarterly Dividend

Signet's board declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.26 per share for Q4 FY17, payable on February 28, 2017 to shareholders of record on January 27, 2017, with an ex-dividend date of January 25, 2017.

Outlook

For Q4 FY17, Signet is forecasting adjusted earnings in a range of $4.00 to $4.05 against the earlier estimate of between $4.00 and $4.20. The Company's same-store sales are now expected to decline 4.8% to 4.3% compared to earlier outlook for a decline of 4.0% to 2.0% in Q4 FY17. For FY17, the Company now anticipates adjusted earnings in a range of $7.38 to $7.43 versus its prior range of $7.38 to $7.58.

Stock Performance

At the close of trading session on January 11, 2017, following the announcement, Signet Jewelers' stock price dropped 3.16% to end the day at $84.70. A total volume of 4.11 million shares were exchanged during the session, which was above the 3-month average volume of 1.30 million shares. The Company's share price has gained 5.69% in the past three months. The stock currently has a market cap of $5.88 billion. The Company's shares are trading at a PE ratio of 12.90 and have a dividend yield of 1.23%.

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SOURCE: Active Wall Street