Brown Shoe Q4 Profit Up 53%, Beats View; But Outlook Disappoints

(RTTNews) - Brown Shoe Co., Inc. (BWS) on Friday reported a 53 percent surge in profit for the fourth quarter from last year on lower costs and higher sales at the company's wholesales division. Earnings per share for the quarter beat analysts' estimates.

However, sales at the company's Famous Footwear segment declined from last year. Looking ahead, the footwear company forecast financial results for fiscal 2014 below analysts' estimates.

Diane Sullivan, CEO, president and chairman of Brown Shoe Co. said, "We reported year-over-year operating earnings growth of 32.4%, while delivering a 2.9% increase in 2013 Famous Footwear same-store-sales. Our wholesale brands continued to make progress, growing sales 13.5% in the fourth quarter and 5.3% in 2013."

St. Louis, Missouri-based Brown Shoe's net earnings for the fourth quarter were $6.16 million or $0.14 per share, up from $4.04 million or $0.09 per share in the year-ago period.

The prior-year quarter results costs related to portfolio realignment efforts of $1.8 million on an after-tax basis, or $0.05 per share.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the latest quarter were $6.16 million or $0.14 per share, compared to $5.87 million or $0.14 per share in the previous-year quarter. On average, seven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.10 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Gross profit margin for the quarter edged up 20 basis points to 40.2 percent from 40.0 percent in the year-ago period.

However, net sales for the quarter declined 3 percent to $599.96 million from $618.74 million in the same period last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $621.15 million for the quarter.

Famous Footwear segment sales for the quarter declined 9 percent year-over-year, with same-store-sales declining 1.8 percent. The segment's performance in the quarter was impacted by severe winter weather, which hurt running shoe sales while helping to drive boot sales.

Meanwhile, wholesale segment sales for the quarter grew 14 percent from last year to $196.3 million. For the Healthy Living platform, wholesale sales rose 4 percent to $107.2 million, led by a double-digit improvement in Naturalizer. Contemporary Fashion wholesale sales increased 28 percent to $$89.1 million, with double-digit growth from key brands Sam Edelman and Franco Sarto.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2014, Brown Shoe forecast earnings in a range of $1.45 to $1.55 per share, and consolidated net sales in a range of $2.58 billion to $2.60 billion. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $1.61 per share for the year on revenue of $2.61 billion.

BWS closed Thursday's trading at $25.39, up $0.19 or 0.75 percent on a volume of 339,250 shares.