Why Vera Bradley Stock Plummeted 20% at the Open Today

Shares of luggage and handbag retailer Vera Bradley (NASDAQ: VRA), which owns both its namesake brand and the smaller Pura Vida bracelet nameplate, fell sharply as trading began on Wednesday, losing as much as 20% of their value in the first few minutes of the day.

The big news was the company's fiscal third-quarter 2022 earnings release. Here's a quick look at why investors were so displeased with the update.

The news on the top line wasn't actually bad for Vera Bradley, with fiscal third-quarter 2022 sales up 7.9% versus the previous year and 5.7% compared to fiscal 2020, a period not affected by the pandemic. Basically, demand is still there for the company's products. It's little wonder that this is what the company put on top of its earnings release. The problem is that lower down, the news starts to get a lot less positive.

Source Fool.com