Earnings Preview: Chico’s FAS likely to post weak Q3 results

Women’s specialty retailer Chico’s FAS Inc. (CHS) is set to post its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday before the bell. The company’s results will be hurt by a decline in comparable sales, the unfavorable impact of the calendar shift, store closures and a decrease in transaction count.

Analysts, on average, expect the company to report earnings of $0.08 per share on revenue of $515.63 million for the third quarter. In comparison, during the previous year quarter, Chico’s FAS reported a profit of $0.13 per share on revenue of $532.29 million. Majority of the analysts recommended a “hold” rating on the stock with an average price target of $8.90.

For the third quarter, the company’s top line will be impacted by the decrease in comparable store sales, the calendar shift, and the store closures. The bottom line will be hurt by costs and expenses as well as store closures charges.

Chico’s FAS will be hurt by the costs related to continued expansion of its omnichannel fulfillment programs and deleverage of store occupancy costs. Expenses relating to marketing and technology as well as deleverage of store operating expenses are likely to impact the results.

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For the second quarter, Chico’s FAS posted a 26% dip in earnings as it experienced an increase in costs and expenses due to the process of becoming a fully integrated omnichannel retailer. Lower transaction count hurt comparable sales by down 3.2%. Net sales fell by 5.9%.

For the third quarter, the company had predicted both net sales and comparable sales to fall in the low-single digits compared to the previous year quarter. For the full year 2018, the company had expected a mid-single digit decline in net sales and a low-to-mid single digit decline in consolidated comparable sales.

Shares of Chico’s FAS opened lower on Tuesday and is trading in the red territory in the mid-afternoon. The stock has fallen over 19% in the year so far and over 15% in the past year.