Children’s Place pops on strong holiday sales

Children’s Place did the most shareholder friendly thing possible just days after it announced a slate of other shareholder friendly measures.



Children’s Place blew away its sales expectations for the holiday season and upped its profit forecast in what can only be seen as a surprising development given a holiday season filled with angst over consumers’ willingness to spend and record warm temperatures. The operator of nearly 1,100 stores said through the first nine weeks of its fourth quarter same store sales had increased 7.3%. The company expects full fourth quarter comps to increase between 6% and 7%, far better than the company’s guidance for an increase in the low single digits and a prior year comp increase of 3.7%.



“We have consistently stated that our multi-pronged transformation strategy would begin to deliver results in the back half of 2015 and our announcement today clearly indicates that we are on track,” said Children’s Place CEO Jane Elfers.



The strong fourth quarter showing will help Children’s Place report flat comps for the full year versus prior guidance which anticipate a slightly negative comps.



The better than expected top line performance prompted the company to increase its profit forecast with earnings per share expected to range from $1.05 to $1.12, compared to previous guidance of 93 cents to $1.03.



The strong results are vindication for Elfers and the Children’s Place board, which faced a contentious exchange with a large shareholder in 2015 who challenged the company’s strategy and processes by which shareholders air grievances. Just days before the company commented on its favorable fourth quarter, Children’s Place announced changes to key provision of its bylaws that allows investors to nominate directors and said it would put other matters to a shareholder vote this May.