Abercrombie & Fitch Sees Higher Q4 Margin, Sales; Lifts FY23 Outlook; Stock Down In Premarket

(RTTNews) - Retailer Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (ANF), while reporting higher third-quarter results, on Tuesday said it sees increased operating margin and sales in its fourth quarter. The company further raised its forecast for fiscal 2023.

In pre-market activity on the NYSE, the shares were losing around 5.4 percent to trade at $68.39.

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, the company expects operating margin to be in the in the range of 12 percent to 14 percent, compared to an adjusted operating margin of 7.7 percent last year.

The year-over-year improvement would reflect a higher gross profit rate on lower freight costs and higher AURs.

Net sales growth for the quarter would be up low double-digits compared to last year's level of $1.2 billion.

Further, for fiscal 2023, the company now expects operating margin to be around 10 percent, compared to previous outlook in the range of 8 percent to 9 percent.

Net sales growth is now expected to be 12 percent to 14 percent from $3.7 billion in 2022. This is an increase to the previous outlook of growth of around 10 percent.

In its third quarter, the company's earnings were $96.21 million, compared to loss of $2.21 million in the same period last year. Earnings per share were $1.83, compared to last year's reported loss of $0.04 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.01 per share.

Analysts on average expected the company to report earnings of $1.1 8 per share, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net sales for the quarter grew 20 percent to $1.06 billion from $880.08 million in the same period last year.

Total company comparable sales went up 16 percent.

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