Five Below Cuts Q4 Outlook

(RTTNews) - Five Below, Inc. (FIVE) said Thursday that net sales for the nine week ended January 4 increased by 25.4% to $185.3 million while same-store sales for the period decreased by 0.5%.

Based on the quarter-to-date performance, the company now expects net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2013 to be in the range of $208 million to $210 million, net earnings of $0.43 to $0.45 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.44 to $0.46 per share.

Previously, the company expected net sales of $214 million to $217 million, net earnings of $0.48 to $0.50 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.49 to $0.51 per share for the fourth quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters currently expect the company to earn $0.51 per share on revenue of $217.60 million for the fourth quarter.

Thomas Vellios, Co-Founder and CEO of Five Below, said: "We did not meet our sales expectations for the holiday season as adverse weather negatively impacted traffic to our stores, which are heavily concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest regions. This was exacerbated by the shortened holiday season during which we simply did not make up the weather-driven sales shortfall, especially in those key shopping days just prior to Christmas."