Christopher & Banks Falls To Loss In Q3

(RTTNews) - Christopher & Banks Corp. (CBK) Tuesday announced net loss of $315 thousand for the third quarter compared to a profit of $8.983 million last year. On a per share basis, loss was $0.01 compared to profit of $0.24 last year. Depreciation and amortization costs and income tax provisions were higher for the period. On average, 3 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to record loss of $0.01. Analysts estimates usually exclude special items.

Net sales for the quarter, declined to $103.64 million from $110.610 million a year ago. Same store sale decline 6.5 percent for the quarter on top of decline of 6.4 percent in the previous year. Wall Street was looking for $103.76 million.

The company said the continued difficult retail environment and unseasonably warm weather had an impact on its recent quarter.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the company expects total net sales between $91 and $95 million, slightly below net sales of $98 percent recorded last year. The company will close two Christopher & Bank stores, one CJ store and nine Missy, Petite, Women stores and to convert 20 stores into MPW stores.

For the fiscal 2015, the company expects average store count to be down around 4 percent and related average square footage to be flat from last year. Nine new MPW stores and 33 outlet stores will be open with total stores of 519 by the end of the year.