• Home
  • Executive
  • Management
  • Urban Outfitters reports flat Q4, annual net sales up 4 percent

Urban Outfitters reports flat Q4, annual net sales up 4 percent

By Prachi Singh

loading...

Scroll down to read more

Management |REPORT

Urban Outfitters announced net income of 73 million dollars and 224 million dollars for the three months and year ended January 31, 2016, respectively. Earnings per diluted share were 0.61 dollar and 1.78 dollars for the fourth quarter and whole year, respectively. Total company net sales for the fourth quarter were flat at 1.01 billion dollars, but for the fiscal year net sales increased to 3.4 billion dollars or 4 percent over the prior year.

“While apparel sales underperformed during the fourth quarter, I am pleased with the merchandise margin improvement delivered by the brands," said Richard A. Hayne, Chief Executive Officer, adding "Additionally, our expansion categories performed above our expectations and continue to give us confidence in our future growth opportunities."

Fourth quarter and FY15 financial highlights

Comparable retail segment net sales, which include our comparable direct-to-consumer channel, decreased 2 percent. Comparable Retail segment net sales increased 2 percent at Free People and decreased 2 percent at the Anthropologie Group and 3 percent at Urban Outfitters. Wholesale segment net sales increased 29 percent partially due to delayed shipments from the third quarter carrying over into the fourth quarter. Comparable retail segment net sales increased 2 percent during the year and wholesale segment net sales increased 15 percent.

For the three months, the gross profit rate declined by 12 basis points versus the prior year's comparable period. This decrease was offset by approximately 200 basis points of improvement in maintained margins primarily driven by significant improvement in the Urban Outfitters brand markdown rate.

For the year ended January 31, 2016, the gross profit rate declined by 47 basis points versus the prior year's comparable period. For the year, the company repurchased and subsequently retired a total of 15 million shares at a total cost of 465.3 million dollars.

During the year, the Company opened a total of 31 new stores including 14 Anthropologie Group stores, 13 Free People stores, and 4 Urban Outfitters stores; and closed 5 stores including: 2 Urban Outfitters stores, 2 Anthropologie Group stores and 1 Free People store.

Urban Outfitters