Ascena Retail Profit Misses Estimates; Stock Down 5%

(RTTNews) - Ascena Retail Group Inc (ASNA) on Tuesday reported second-quarter net earnings of $8.7 million or $0.05 per share compared with $31.9 million or $0.19 per share last year.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.07 per share compared with $0.23 per share a year ago.

Revenues for the quarter were $1.29 billion compared with $1.27 billion in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.08 per share on revenues of $1.30 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Ascena store comparable sales for the quarter fell 2%, while its ecommerce comparable sales rose 19%.

Sales were driven by new store growth at Justice and maurices and positive combined comparable sales at Lane Bryant, maurices, dressbarn and Catherines, partly offset by negative combined comparable sales at Justice, the company said.

The company's gross margin for the quarter fell to 51.4% from 52.3% last year.

"Looking back on the second quarter, while conditions remained very challenging at Justice, we saw performance improve across our other brands as we moved through Holiday into January," said CEO David Jaffe.

For the full year 2015, the company still expects adjusted earnings of $0.70 to $0.75 per share, while analysts expect $0.73 per share.

Ascena Retail operates as a specialty retailer of apparel for women, and tween girls and boys.