Breaking News
Mar 21, 2024
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Five Below declined 12.5% to $182.85 after the deep discount retailer reported lower-than-expected revenue and earnings in the fiscal quarter, dominated by holiday sales.
Revenue in the fiscal fourth quarter ended February 3 increased 19.1% to $1.34 billion from $1.12 billion, net income rose to $202.2 million from $171.3 million, and diluted earnings per share rose to $3.65 from $3.02 a year ago.
Net sales in the 53rd week were $48.1 million and represented approximately $0.15 cents in diluted earnings per share.
The company also estimated weaker-than-anticipated revenue and earnings in the fiscal first quarter and full year.
Net sales in the fiscal first quarter are expected to range between $826 million and $846 million, net income between $32 million and $38 million, and diluted earnings per share between 58 cents and 69 cents.
The company's guidance is based on comparable sales to increase between flat and 2%.
For the full year of fiscal 2024, net sales are estimated in the range of $3.97 billion and $4.07 billion, net income between $318 million and $346 million, and diluted earnings per share between $5.71 and $6.22. -
Darden Restaurants declined 5.9% to $164.32 after the owner of Olive Garden and other chains reported weaker-than-expected revenue and earnings in its latest quarter.
Revenue in the fiscal third quarter increased 6.8% to $2.97 billion from $2.79 billion, net income rose to $312.9 million from $286.6 million, and diluted earnings per share advanced to $2.60 from $2.34 a year ago.
The total sales increase was driven by sales from the addition of 79 company-owned Ruth's Chris Steak House restaurants and 53 other net new restaurants, partially offset by a blended same-restaurant sales decrease of 1.0%.
The company estimated full-year revenue of $11.4 billion and diluted earnings per share between $8.80 and $8.90.
The company's board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.31 per share payable on May 1 to shareholders on record on April 10.
The retail chain in the quarter repurchased 0.2 million shares for $33 million, and the company's board authorized a new share repurchase plan of $1 billion. -
Accenture dropped 6.5% to $356.50 after the information services provider's revenue outlook outweighed earnings in the fiscal second quarter.
Revenue in the second quarter was flat at $15.8 billion, net income increased to $1.7 billion from $1.55 billion, and diluted earnings per share rose to $2.63 from $2.39 a year ago.
New bookings for the quarter were $21.6 billion, with consulting bookings of $10.5 billion and managed services bookings of $11.1 billion.
The company declared a quarterly cash dividend of $1.29 per share payable on May 15 to shareholders on record on April 18.
During the quarter, the company repurchased or redeemed 3.8 million shares for a total of $1.3 billion, and about $4.6 billion were still available under the stock repurchase plan as of February 29.
The company guided fiscal third quarter revenue between $16.25 billion and $16.85 billion, falling between negative 1% and positive 3% when measured in local currency from a year ago.
The company also estimated annual revenue growth to be in the range of 1% to 3%, compared to a previous estimate between 2% and 5%, assuming no impact of foreign currency translation on its results. -
The Federal Reserve left its key lending rate unrevised, signaled possible rate cuts, and lifted its economic growth outlook.
The Federal Open Market Committee left the fed funds target rate range unrevised between 5.25% and 5.50% for the fifth meeting in a row and held rates steady at a 23-year high.
The rate-setting committee, also noted in the so-called dot plot, anticipates three rate cuts that could bring down the fed funds rate range to between 4.50% and 4.75%.
At the same time, the committee raised its forecast for rates at the end of 2025 to a range of 3.75% to 4.0% from the December forecast range between 3.50% and 3.75%.
Investors bid up stocks after the monetary policy decisions indicated the possibility of as many as three rate cuts in the next nine months. -
U.S. housing starts and permits increased in February, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday.
Low home inventories are forcing more and more buyers to buy new homes as buyers struggle with elevated mortgage rates and home affordability.
Seasonally adjusted privately owned housing starts rose to 1.521 million, an increase of 10.7% from January and 5.9% from a year ago.
Building permits increased 1.9% from the previous month and 2.4% from a year ago to a total of 1.518 million.
Housing completions surged 19.7% from January and increased 9.7% from a year ago to 1.73 million. -
Ulta Beauty dropped 7.6% to $522.0 after the cosmetic retailer estimated a lower-than-expected full-year sales outlook.
Net sales in the fourth quarter ending on February 3 increased 10.2% to $3.6 billion from $3.2 billion, net income advanced to $394.4 million from $340.7 million, and diluted earnings per share rose to $8.08 from $6.68 a year ago.
The fourth quarter included one extra week compared to a year ago because of the calendar shift.
Calendar-adjusted comparable store sales in the quarter slowed sharply to 2.5% from 15.6% in the period a year ago.
During the fourth quarter, the retailer repurchased 352,005 shares of its common stock at a cost of $159.5 million, and in fiscal 2023, the company repurchased 2.2 million shares of its common stock at a cost of $1.0 billion.
As of February 3, 2024, $99.9 million remained available under the $2 billion share repurchase program announced in March 2022.
On March 12, 2024, the company’s board of directors approved a new share repurchase authorization of $2 billion, replacing the current program in place since March 2022.
The company estimated fiscal 2024 sales to range between $11.7 billion and $11.8 billion, an annual increase between 4% and 5%.
The retailer estimated diluted earnings per share in the fiscal year 2024 to fall between $26.20 and $27.0, based on opening net new stores between 60 and 65 and operating margins between 14.0% and 14.3%. -
Seasonally adjusted retail and food services sales, but not adjusted for prices, increased 0.6% from the previous month and rose 1.5% from a year ago in February.
Despite elevated inflation and rising interest rates, consumer spending is holding up, but consumers are sticking to basic necessities and avoiding discretionary items.
Nonstore retail sales increased 6.4%, and food services and drinking place sales advanced 6.3% from a year ago.
Retail sales in February rose by 0.6% on a monthly basis, and January's monthly sales decline was lowered to 1.1% from the previous estimate of a 0.8% fall.
Total retail sales over the three-month period to February 2024, which covers the critical holiday period, rose 2.1% from the same period a year ago.
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The producer price index for the final demand increased by 0.6% from the previous month in February, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
The annual measure of wholesale inflation accelerated to 1.6% in the month from 0.9% in January after high energy prices drove goods prices to increase at the fastest pace in six months.
Goods prices increased 1.2%, and the cost of services edged up 0.3%.
However, the core rate of inflation, which excludes volatile energy and food prices, rose at a slower pace of 0.3% after rising 0.5% in the previous month.
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Dick's Sporting Goods rose 4.9% to $197.0 after the athletic goods retailer posted record quarterly sales in the fiscal fourth quarter.
Net sales in the holiday quarter ending on February 3rd increased 7.85 to $3.9 billion from $3.6 billion, net income advanced 26% to $296 million from $236 million, and diluted earnings per share rose to $3.57 from $2.60 a year ago.
The company estimated fiscal 2024 earnings per share to range between $12.85 and $13.25 and estimated same-store sales to rise between 1% and 2%. -
Oracle Corp. increased 11.5% to $127.26 after the database and cloud computing company reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings.
Revenue in the fiscal third quarter ending on February increased 7% to $13.3 billion from $12.4 billion, net income advanced 27% to $2.4 billion from $1.8 billion, and diluted earnings per share rose to 85 cents from 68 cents a year ago.
Cloud revenue increased 25% to $5.1 billion and cloud infrastructure surged 49% to $1.8 billion, respectively.
"Large new cloud infrastructure contracts signed in Q3 drove Oracle's total Remaining Performance Obligations up 29% to over $80 billion—an all-time record," said Oracle CEO, Safra Catz.
The company also signaled strong demand for its cloud computing products and indicated sustained revenue growth at least for the remainder of 2024.
"We expect to continue receiving large contracts reserving cloud infrastructure capacity because the demand for our Gen2 AI infrastructure substantially exceeds supply—despite the fact we are opening new and expanding existing cloud datacenters very, very rapidly.
We expect that 43% of our current $80 billion of Remaining Performance Obligations will be recognized as revenue over the next four quarters, added Catz.
The company also indicated that its Gen2 Cloud Infrastructure business "will remain in a hypergrowth phase for the foreseeable future" after surging 53% in the fiscal third quarter.
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