Unlike some teen retailers, the dudes at Pacific Sunwear (Nasdaq: PSUN) didn't, like, totally biff the holiday season, but same-store sales for December weren't as gnarly as Wall Street predicted. This news capped off what has been a choppy year and raised questions about whether shareholders should, you know, like, totally bail.
The surf and skate retailer said Thursday that same-store sales declined 2.8% in December. For the 850-unit core brand of stores, same-store figures rose, though by a mere 0.8%. But the remaining stores in the company's hip-hop demo concept posted a wipe-out 28.4% decrease in comps. Management spread a ray of sunshine in October, when it announced that it will close down the failing demo concept altogether. In the meantime, based on December's results, management lowered guidance for the fourth quarter to between $0.11 and $0.14. Shares caught a bad wave and have crashed 10% since the news.
Consumers have become financially weaker from rising fuel costs and the housing conundrum. Many robustly managed teen retailers, including Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF) and American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE: AEO), have also posted falling comps. But December wasn't a total teenage wasteland. At Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO), comps came in at 12.2% for the month, while Urban Outfitters (Nasdaq: URBN) reported comps of 9% for the holiday season. So the Motley Fool Stock Advisor recommendation can't direct all of the blame toward the economy, since some retailers held up just fine over the holidays.
I have faith that the company will rebound. Recent comps have been choppy in 2007, but PacSun has still managed to post positive comps every year since 2003.
Furthermore, as fellow Fool Rich Duprey has noted, recently installed CEO Sally Frame Kasaks continues to make the right moves, including shutting down both the ill-conceived One Thousand Steps shoe-store chain and the imploding demo chain.
So although these shares have been deep-sea diving for the past two years, Fools who already own them might want to keep holding their breath, because a recovery in comps just might be in store as management shapes up its operations. As for valuation, the company's price-to-sales ratio sits at 0.56, well below both Abercrombie and American Eagle. So for those totally stoked on PacSun, now might be a good time to buy.
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