The Cato Corporation Reports Sales Results for the Five Weeks, Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended February 3, 2018; Provides Earnings Guidance for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year
February 08, 2018 at 06:30 am EST
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The Cato Corporation reported sales results for the five weeks, fourth quarter and full year ended February 3, 2018. For the five weeks, the company reported sales of $54.2 million, a 19% increase from sales of $45.5 million for the four week period ended January 28, 2017. On a comparable five-week basis, total sales decreased 7% and same-store sales for the month decreased 6%.
Sales for fiscal fourth quarter ended February 3, 2018 were $211.1 million, a decrease of 3% over sales of $218.2 million for the fourth quarter ended January 28, 2017. On a comparable 14-week basis, total sales for the quarter decreased 8% and comparable store sales decreased 8% from last year.
For the year, the company's sales decreased 11% to $842.1 million from 2017 sales of $947.4 million. On a comparable 53-week basis, total sales for the fiscal year ended February 3, 2018 decreased 12% and comparable store sales decreased 12% from last year.
The company provided earnings guidance for the fourth quarter and full year. The company now expects the fourth quarter earnings to be a loss of between $0.55 and $0.65 versus a loss of $0.48 last year. This includes revised estimate of a one-time tax expense of between $0.40 and $0.50 as a result of the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017'.
The company's estimate for full year earnings per diluted share is in the range of $0.30 to $0.40 versus $1.72 last year.
The Cato Corporation is a fashion specialty retailer. The Company operates through two segments: the operation of a fashion specialty stores segment (Retail Segment) and a credit card segment (Credit Segment). The Company's merchandise lines include dressy, career, and casual sportswear, dresses, coats, shoes, lingerie, costume jewelry, handbags, men's wear and lines for kids and infants. The apparel specialty stores operate under the names Cato, Cato Fashions, Cato Plus, Its Fashion, Its Fashion Metro and Versona, including e-commerce websites. The Versona brand stores and e-commerce Website offer quality fashion apparel items, jewelry and accessories at values every day. The Company offers its own credit cards to its customers and all credit authorizations, payment processing and collection efforts are performed by a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company. It operates approximately 1,178 fashion specialty stores in 31 states, principally in the southeastern United States.
The Cato Corporation Reports Sales Results for the Five Weeks, Fourth Quarter and Full Year Ended February 3, 2018; Provides Earnings Guidance for the Fourth Quarter and Full Year