Skechers Q1 earnings up 25%; shares plummet on downbeat outlook

Footwear maker Skechers USA (SKX) Thursday said its first-quarter profit jumped sharply helped by record revenue growth. The company, however, predicted second-quarter earnings below analysts’ estimates, triggering a selloff that saw the stock falling more than 20% in after-hours trading.

Revenues climbed 16.5% year-over-year during the three-month period to an all-time high of $1.25 billion, driving earnings higher by 25% to $0.75 per share. Revenues surpassed outlook, while earnings matched estimates. The company’s earnings had exceeded market expectation in each of the previous four quarters.

Contributing significantly to the broad-based topline growth, global wholesale sales climbed 18%, and domestic wholesale sales moved up 8.5%. Overall comparable same-store sales were higher by 9.5%.

“Our targeted marketing on air, in print, and digitally continues to raise awareness of our vast product offering and drive sales around the world. We’re looking forward to the remainder of our Spring deliveries, and sharing our results as we move through the rest of 2018,” said Skechers CEO Robert Greenberg.

For the second quarter, the California-based company forecasts sales in the range of $1.120 billion to $1.145 billion and earnings between $0.38 per share and $0.43 per share, far below the expectations of Wall Street analysts.

For the whole of 2018, Skechers sees annual tax rate in the 12% to 17% range, higher than the current rate of 9.6%. During the quarter, the company repurchased about 76,000 shares for $3 million. Among competitors, Rocky Brands (RCKY) is scheduled to release its first-quarter results on April 24.