Retailers Give September Sales Updates

At least five retailers have reported September sales and comparable store sales. It is a mixed bag of results: While L Brands Inc LB, Costco Wholesale Corporation COST and Zumiez Inc ZUMZ reported an increase in comparable store sales, Buckle Inc BKE and Cato Corp CATO disclosed a fall in comparable store sales for September.

Related Link: Wal-Mart Reaffirms 2017 Outlook, Sees Little Growth To 2018

Below are a few specifics:

• L Brands reported 3 percent growth in comparable sales, net sales grew 6 percent from $919.9 million to $971.4 million for September.
• Costco revealed 1 percent increase in comparable sales while net sales advanced 10.75 percent to $11.06 billion.
• Zumiez disclosed 6.3 percent uptick in comparable sales for September while net sales grew 11.5 percent from $67.3 million to $75.0 million. As a result, the company boosted its net sales outlook to $216 million–$217 million and EPS of $0.29–$0.30 for the third quarter. Earlier the company guided EPS of about $0.21–$0.26 on net sales of $209 million–$213 million. The retailer expects comparable sales to increase about 2 percent in the third quarter.
• Buckle revealed 15.5 percent drop in comparable store sales while net sales fell 14.8 percent from $97.4 million to $82.9 million.
• Cato reported 9 percent drop in same-store sales for September while net sales fell 8 percent from $83.2 million to $76.2 million in September. As a result, the company slashed its EPS forecast from $0.13–$0.18 to $0.07–$0.11 for the third quarter.

At last check ...

• Buckle was down 3 percent at $22.94 in Thursday's pre-market.
• Cato closed Wednesday's trading at $32.96.
• Costco was up 0.16 percent at $140.22 in Thursday's pre-market.
• L Brands was up 1.39 percent at $71.50.
• Zumiez was up 14.94 percent at $21.00.

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