Urban Outfitters Inc. (NASDAQ: URBN) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results after the markets close on Tuesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.63 in earnings per share (EPS) on $1.08 billion in revenue. In the fourth quarter of last year, the retailer said it had EPS of $0.55 and $1.03 billion in revenue.
This appears to be one of the retailers that faced a tough holiday season. Urban Outfitters felt the sting along with the likes of Macy’s, Nordstrom and Sears.
As we have said before, retailers have to learn how to survive in this Amazon world, and much of this comes from rolling out omnichannel and e-commerce platforms to reach more consumers. We’ve seen Target partner with Shipt and Walmart acquire Jet.com to compete at the next level. However, this can be a problem for retailers without the resources of these big-box giants.
During this holiday season, Urban Outfitters saw comparable sales increasing, but they were not up to par with what was expected. In the two months ended December 31, 2017, total net sales increased 3.6% from the same period of last year. Comparable Retail segment net sales increased 2.0%, driven by strong, double-digit growth in the direct-to-consumer channel, partially offset by negative retail store sales.
By brand, Comparable Retail segment net sales increased 5.0% at Free People, 2.0% at the Anthropologie Group and 1.0% at Urban Outfitters. The Wholesale segment net sales increased 6.8%.
Excluding Tuesday’s move, Urban Outfitters had outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 39% in the past 52 weeks. In just the past six months, the stock is up 77%, although year to date the shares are only up 3%.
A few analysts weighed in on Urban Outfitters ahead of the report:
- B. Riley has a Neutral rating with a $37 price target.
- RBC has a Hold rating and a $37 price target.
- SunTrust has a Buy rating with a $40 price target.
- Nomura has a Neutral rating with a $30 target price.
- Buckingham Research has a Buy rating with a $42 target.
- Robert Baird’s Buy rating comes with a $39 price target.
Shares of Urban Outfitters were last seen up 1% at $36.66 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $34.62 and a 52-week range of $16.19 to $38.06.
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