Express Inc. (NYSE:$EXPR) saw its stock go up after releasing its second quarter earnings report on Wednesday, August 23. Although the company’s performance decreased on a year-over-year basis, the quarterly results exceeded average analysts’ expectations. While the retail company saw a GAAP net loss of $11.8 million, Express saw a net income of $746,000, or $0.01 per share on a non-GAAP basis. Analysts had expected an average of a net loss of $0.01 per share on a non-GAAP basis. Express’ revenue for its second quarter fell about 5% year-over-year to reach about $478.5 million but it still exceeded average expectations of $474.1 million in revenue.
“Comparable sales and earnings were at the top end of our guidance, as our key initiatives gain further traction,” Express’ CEO David Kornberg said of the company’s quarter report. “Our e-commerce performance was outstanding, increasing 28% over last year, and store comps showed further sequential improvement.”
Like many of its peers, Express faced challenges as less and less customers visit brick-and-mortar stores, preferring to online shop. The company had closed about 40 of its stores, turning about 19 of these stores to an outlet format, so far this year. The company has also opened 4 new stores in outlets in an attempt to continue to benefit from its physical stores. Still, about 19% of Express’ total sales came from its online shop.
Despite strong quarterly reports, Express remains with its earlier expectations of negative comparable sales for the rest of the year. As well, Express have reiterated expectations of an adjusted net income of around $0.41 to $0.48 per share. Despite no movement in the company’s expectation of its performance for the rest of 2017, Kornberg believes that Express will continue to build upon the improvements it saw in its second quarter. The company is also set to meet its goal of having $20 million in savings this year.
As the company works through the struggles the retail industry continues to face, investors are starting to gain some confidence in Express after its somewhat positive earnings report. As of closing on Wednesday, August 23, the company’s stock had gone up by an impressive 19.49%.
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