VF Q3 Profit Up, Tops View, Sales Down; Cuts FY16 Outlook - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - VF Corp. (VFC), a manufacturer of branded lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories, on Monday trimmed its forecast for fiscal 2016 earnings, sales and margin. This was despite reporting higher profit in its third quarter, above market, while sales were lower.

In pre-market activity on the NYSE, VF shares were losing 2.14 percent to trade at $53.50.

For the year, the company now expects earnings per share to increase 3 percent to $3.13, compared with previous expectation of a 5 percent increase to $3.20. This is compared to last year's earnings per share from continuing operations of $3.04.

Revenue, on a currency neutral basis, is now expected to increase 2 percent to about $12.2 billion, compared to the previous estimate of 3 to 4 percent growth.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $3.20 per share on revenues of $12.43 billion for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company also reduced its revenue growth forecast for Outdoor & Action Sports coalition, Jeanswear coalition and Direct-to-Consumer revenue.

Operating margin is now expected to reach 14.3 percent, including about 60 basis points of negative impact from changes in foreign currency. This is 20 basis points lower than the previous 14.5 percent estimate.

In its third quarter, net income increased 8 percent to $498.49 million from last year's $459.86 million. Earnings per share went up 11 percent to $1.19 from $1.07 last year.

Gross margin was up 70 basis points to 48.4 percent.

Meanwhile, total revenue from continuing operations went down 1 percent to $3.49 billion from $3.53 billion last year.

Analysts expected earnings of $1.15 per share on revenues of $3.63 billion for the quarter.

On October 20, VF's Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.42 per share, reflecting a 14 percent increase over the previous quarter's dividend.