Why the Beaten-Down Shares of Guess? Popped 22% Today
Shares of Guess? (NYSE: GES), a retailer of apparel and related consumer products, jumped over 22% early Wednesday morning after the company not only obliterated analysts' consensus estimates but also delivered more great news for investors.
Many brick-and-mortar retailers faced unprecedented circumstances when the coronavirus kept consumers at home and away from stores, but Guess? management was able to control costs and inventory to offset some of the impact of the pandemic. Fiscal 2021 second-quarter revenue dropped 42% to $399 million, and the adjusted loss per share checked in at $0.01; but those results were far better than analysts' estimates of a $0.58 adjusted loss per share on revenue of $385 million.
Management also increased product margins and ended the second quarter with inventories down 13%, compared with the prior year, with plenty of liquidity to survive the continued slow traffic. The icing on the cake for long-term investors was the reinstated quarterly cash dividend of $0.1125 per share for a yield of roughly 3.3%, in line with the payment prior to the pandemic.
Source Fool.com
