Dillard’s posted a big second quarter, confounding Wall Street with sales and earnings well above estimates.
For the second quarter, Dillard’s posted a net income of $185.7 million, or $8.81 per share, versus a net loss of $8.6 million, or 37 cents per share, in the prior year period.
Dillard’s beat a Yahoo Finance analyst average second-quarter earnings per share estimate of 54 cents. The retailer’s sales also came in well above estimates, which averaged $1.31 billion from the four analysts Yahoo Finance tapped, well short of the actual number.
Included in the net loss for the quarter a year prior was a net tax benefit of $17.4 million, or 75 cents per share, related to the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, Dillard’s indicated.
Net sales were $1.57 billion versus $919 million in the quarter a year ago, one affected by shopping restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales excluding results from the company’s construction business were $1.54 billion versus $893.2 million in the 2020 period. Ladies’ apparel and shoes significantly outperformed other merchandise categories in the quarter, Dillard’s pointed out. Total company revenues were $1.6 billion versus $945.1 million in the year-earlier period, Dillard’s reported.
In the pre-coronavirus 2019 second quarter, net sales were $1.38 billion. Comparable store sales in the current period versus the 2019 second quarter increased 14%, Dillard’s noted.
In announcing the first-quarter results, the company’s CEO William Dillard said, “The strong consumer demand we saw in the first quarter continued throughout the second quarter. This momentum, combined with our continuing focus on inventory and expense control, produced a sequential record performance. We ended the quarter with $670 million in cash even after repurchasing $112 million of stock.”
