Ascena Retail Q4 Results Top Wall Street; Shares Up 10%

(RTTNews) - Shares of Ascena Retail Group Inc. (ASNA) surged about 10% on extended session Monday after the company's fourth-quarter results trumped Wall Street estimates.

Ascena Retail reported fourth-quarter profit of $33.2 million or $0.17 per share, compared with a loss of $15.8 million or $0.08 per share last year.

On an adjusted basis, earnings for the quarter were $0.07 per share, up from $0.05 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimate earnings of $0.02 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Ascena, which includes retail chains such as Lane Bryant and Ann Taylor, said sales for the quarter grew to $1.766 billion from $1.658 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.62 billion for the quarter.

CEO David Jaffe said, "Our fourth quarter reflected sequential comp improvement across all our brands, and the first enterprise-level positive comp quarter for ascena since the second quarter of Fiscal 2015.

"Comparable sales increased 4%, and excluding dressbarn, all brands delivered positive comps. Specific to dressbarn, we delivered a 9 percentage point sequential comparable sales improvement from our third quarter, and have fully reset the brand's inventory position heading into Fiscal 2019."

Looking forward to the first quarter, the company expect to report loss of $0.04 to earnings of $0.06 per share and sales of $1.54 billion to $1.56 billion. Analysts currently estimate earnings of $0.15 per share and revenues of $1.52 billion.

For the full year, the company expects earnings of $0.00 to $0.10 per share and revenues of $6.45 billion to $6.55 billion.

ASNA closed Monday's trading at $4.01, down $0.21 or 4.98%, on the Nasdaq. The stock however, gained $0.39 or 9.73% in the after-hours trade.