Specialty apparel giant cuts outlook on poor holiday

Ascena Retail Group Inc. cut its earnings outlook as poor sales moved it into a highly promotional stance during the holiday period.



The operator of Ann Taylor, Loft, Dressbarn, Lane Bryant, Maurices and Catherines said total same-same sales declined 3.1% during the November/December period.



Same-store sales were down across all Ascena’s banners with the exception of its kids fashion segment (includes the Justice chain) which posted a 2.7% increase. Ann Taylor saw the biggest decline, with an 8.2% drop in same-store sales.



“We were disappointed by our overall holiday performance,” said David Jaffe, president and CEO. “Outside of discrete peaks during the holiday season, we experienced stronger than expected store traffic headwinds. As a result, we were forced into a more highly promotional stance in order to move through inventory in the face of softer overall consumer demand. At this juncture, we are positioning our full year outlook assuming that the trend we experienced through holiday continues.



Ascena said it now expects fiscal 2017 non-GAAP EPs to be in the range of $0.37 to $0.42 for the 52-week period ending July 29, 2017. That compares to a prior forecast for non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of $0.60 to $0.65 and it incorporates the company's revised fiscal second quarter guidance, which calls for a non-GAAP loss of $0.08 to $0.11 per share versus its prior guidance of breakeven to a loss of $0.05 per share.