Steve Madden stores exceeds expectations in preliminary Q4, full year results

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Jan 10, 2017

Steve Madden on Monday updated its earnings per share guidance for fiscal year 2016 following its preliminary fourth quarter and full year sales results. The company expects its diluted EPS to be at the high end of its guidance range of $1.98 to $2.03, which the company announced in November.

 
Edward Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are pleased with our fourth quarter performance, with earnings per share expected to be at the high end of our guidance range despite the challenging retail environment. Sales were lower than anticipated, due largely to softness in cold weather accessories as well as our decision to wind down our relationship with our distributor in Asia as we plan to transition to a new business model in the region in 2017.”
 
Rosenfeld added that the sales were offset by “better-than-anticipated” gross margin, and the company expects its wholesale footwear and accessories businesses to show strong gross margin improvement over the prior year’s fourth quarter.

Fourth quarter net sales decreased 2.3% to $336.4 million with the wholesale division falling 5.1% to $251.5 million and retail net sales increasing 7.1% to $84.9 million. Retail comparable sales also increased 1.1%.
 
Fiscal year 2016 net sales fell slightly to $1.4 billion, wholesale net sales decreased 2.4% to $1.1 billion and retail net sales increased 9.3% to $262.8 million. Retail comparable sales increased 4.0% over the previous year.