Oxford Industries Inc. posted mixed second-quarter results on Thursday after the markets closed, but at least beat Wall Street’s consensus earnings per share estimate by 1 cent.
Net income for the quarter ended July 29 slipped 5 percent to $22.7 million, or $1.36 a diluted share, from $23.9 million, or $1.44, a year ago. On an adjusted basis, EPS for the quarter was $1.44 compared with $1.48 a year ago. Net sales rose 0.6 percent to $284.7 million from $283 million. The company said royalties and other operating income were flat with the prior year at $3.3 million.
Wall Street was expecting adjusted EPS of $1.43 on revenues of $291.3 million.
In a conference call with analysts Thursday afternoon, Thomas Chubb, chief executive officer, said the performance of Tommy Bahama had a good quarter, with comp-store sales up 5 percent in the brand’s retail stores and 6 percent at its restaurants. “In a crowded marketplace, many brands struggle to deliver their message, but not Tommy Bahama,” he said.
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Lilly Pulitzer sales were flat in the quarter, but Chubb said the brand just completed its largest end-of-the-season clearance sale in its history, “and full-price sales were also quite robust,” he said.
He also pointed to the acquisition of the 12 “In the Pink” and “Pink Palm” licensed Lilly Pulitzer signature stores as a positive for the brand. Additionally, “Lilly’s position as a resort lifestyle brand is a competitive advantage and the addition of stores in key resort locations such as Nantucket, Cape Cod and Martha’s Vineyard [all in Massachusetts] allows us to further leverage that advantage,” Chubb said.
“While key brick-and-mortar locations will always be an important point of distribution for each of our brands, our fastest-growing channel of distribution is in our e-commerce businesses,” he added. One-third of Lilly Pulitzer’s sales now come from online.
Looking ahead at the third quarter, Oxford provided guidance that had generally accepted accounting principles’ EPS at between 4 cents and 14 cents on net sales expected at between $240 and $250 million. The EPS forecast compares with the third-quarter loss a year ago of 10 cents a share.
Oxford also updated guidance for the full 2017 fiscal year. It now expects GAAP EPS to be between $3.23 and $3.43 on net sales projected at between $1.09 billion to $1.11 billion. GAAP earnings in fiscal 2016 were $3.27.
Shares of Oxford ended the day’s trading session down 1.08 percent to $57.81, but then rose 1.09 percent to $58.44 in after-hours trading following the posting of the results.