May comes up short for most specialty retailers

New York City May proved to be a tough month for many U.S. specialty apparel retailers, as sales results largely fell short of analysts’ estimates. The news was particularly disappointing because April sales results had planted hopes for a rebound in the sector. Still, retailers faced tough comparisons with last year's results, which were helped by the benefit of stimulus checks.

Among teen retailers, The Buckle and Aeropostale continued to shine. The Buckle said its same-store sales rose 13.4%, solidly outpacing the 11.2% average analyst estimate.

Aeropostale also topped analysts' estimates, reporting same-store sales growth of 19%, compared with the 10.7% average analyst estimate.

The strong results were driven in part by solid sales of the chain's summer clothing collection. The retailer said it had also been able to boost profit margins for the month compared with last year's results.

At Gap, same-store sales fell 6% in May, a worse than expected decline.

At Gap's North American stores, comparable sales were down 11%, compared with an expected 9.7% decline. Sales at the Banana Republic brand sank 14%, vs. an expected 11.9% decrease. Old Navy, however, posted same-store sales growth of 3%. Still, that was less than the expected 3.9% gain.

Meanwhile, a struggling Abercrombie & Fitch continued to decline, as same-store sales tumbled 28% in May, below the projected decline of 24.1%.

In other specialty results:

• Hot Topic fell short of analyst estimates, as same-store sales fell 6.4%, compared with the 4.3% projected decline.

• American Eagle Outfitters reported a decline of 7% in same-store sales in May, missing Wall Street’s expectations.

• Wet Seal said its same-store sales fell 8.4 % in May as sales at both its namesake and Arden B stores declined, but the decline was smaller than Wall Street expected.

• Limited Brands said Thursday that its same-store sales fell 7% in May. The results were in line with expectations.

• Children’s Place reported one of the biggest misses in the sector. The retailer said same-store sales fell 9.0% in May. Analysts had been expecting sales to rise 0.1%.

• Destination Maternity Corp. said Thursday that its May same-store sales fell 5.4%.