Signet Jewelers’ adjusted earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter beat analysts’ expectations, but declined from the year-ago period.
The world's largest retailer of diamond jewellery incurred a net loss of -$116.2 million (or a loss of -$2.25 a share) for the three months ended Feb.2, compared to the year-ago quarter’s profit of $343 million (or $5.24 earnings a share).
However, adjusted earnings of $3.96 a share managed to surpass analysts’ expected $3.81 a share (based on FactSet data).
Signet’s total sales declined from the year-ago period to $2.15 billion, although the figure exceeded consensus estimates of $2.14 billion (based on FactSet data). Same-store sales decreased -2%, slightly steeper than the -1.9% decline expected by analysts.
CEO Virginia Drosos praised the company’s cost cutting strategy and marketing improvement methods, but still acknowledged lower-than-expected performance for the latest quarter citing “a highly competitive promotional environment, continued consumer weakness in the UK, and lower than expected customer demand for legacy merchandise collections that impacted our holiday fourth quarter results."
Looking ahead, Signet expects its adjusted earnings to range between $2.87 and $3.45 per share, in line with current FactSet consensus estimates of $3.13 per share. Its sales forecast ranges between $6 billion and $6.1 billion, also in line with the analysts’ expectations of $6.1 billion.