rue21 has solid third quarter
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Another Pittsburgh-area retailer is reporting it had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, with "record" sales gains achieved without a lot of expensive promotions.
Cranberry-based value teen clothing retailer rue21 said after the market closed this afternoon that a solid Black Friday weekend got the holiday season off to a great start, just as South Side merchant American Eagle Outfitters had reported earlier in the day.
In the third quarter, rue21 reported that net income of $8.2 million, or 33 cents per share, would have looked stronger against last year's $8.7 million profit, or 35 cents per share, if not for a $2.9 million pre-tax litigation expense related to the costs of settling wage and hours claims in California.
Excluding that, net income would have been $10 million, or 41 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for 39 cents per share.
A 15.6 percent sales gain in the three months ended Oct. 27 to $225.2 million was credited to the addition of new stores and a 0.2 percent sales increase in stores that have been open at least a year.
At this point, rue21 is projecting that adjusted earnings per share for the fiscal year will be in the range of $1.83 to $1.86. Analysts were looking for $1.85.
First Published November 28, 2012 4:33 pm
