Burlington Stores didn’t disappoint in the second quarter, beating a Wall Street earnings expectation and equaling a revenue prediction as it prepared to add new stores and to relocate stores into former Bed Bath & Beyond locations it secured in a bankruptcy auction.
Net income was $30.9 million, or 47 cents per diluted share, versus $12 million, or 18 cents per diluted share, in the year-prior quarter, the company reported. Adjusted for one-time events, net income was $38.9 million, or 60 cents per diluted share, versus $22.9 million, or 35 cents per diluted share, in the year-earlier period.
An analyst consensus estimate published by Yahoo Finance called for adjusted diluted earnings per share of 43 cents and revenues of $2.17 billion.
Comparable sales gained 4% in the quarter year over year, Burlington stated. Net sales and total revenues were $2.17 billion in the quarter, versus sales $1.98 billion and total revenues were $1.99 billion in the 2022 period.
In announcing the financial results, Michael O’Sullivan, Burlington Stores CEO, said, “Our comparable store sales growth for the second quarter was 4%, which was at the high end of our guidance range, while margin and earnings performance were significantly ahead of our guidance. Our strategies to deliver great value to our customers are working, and we have been helped in the execution of these strategies by very strong availability of great off-price merchandise. Looking at the spring season as a whole, it is clear that the lower-income shopper, our core customer, is still under significant economic pressure.”
He added, “Based on the underlying year-to-date comp trend, we are narrowing our full-year comparable store sales guidance to a range of 3% to 4% versus 2022. It is possible that the trend will strengthen in the back half of the year, and if it does, then we are confident that we can chase it. Compared to our peers, we have a huge opportunity to expand our store count. We also have potential to improve our sales productivity and individual store economics with our smaller store prototype. Over the past several months, there has been an opening up in the supply of great real estate locations, driven by retail bankruptcies. We are very pleased that we have recently been able to acquire the leases to 62 former Bed Bath & Beyond stores. These locations together with the broader loosening of real estate supply should significantly strengthen our new store and relocation pipeline for 2024 and potentially beyond.”
