What happened
Shares of clothier G-III Apparel Group (GIII 0.72%) popped 11% on Thursday after it reported strong, estimate-thumping earnings in the morning and promised bigger profits to come. (The stock dropped about 3% on Friday.)
Heading into the company's fiscal Q4 earnings report, analysts had predicted G-III would report a $0.44-per-share quarterly profit on sales of $768.2 million. Although G-III missed that sales target by a smidgen (revenue was only $766.8 million), the company reported an unadjusted profit of $0.48 per share, about 9% better than expected.
G-III handed investors a good earnings report. Image source: Getty Images.
So what
G-III's fiscal Q4 profit eclipsed the $0.01 per share reported in last year's Q4. And while sales might not have quite met expectations, they still rose more than 7% year over year.
For the full year, sales grew an even stronger 10%, to $3.1 billion, with profits coming in at $2.75 per diluted share -- more than twice last year's $1.25 per share profit -- "a record year for G-III," as CEO Morris Goldfarb explained.
Check out the latest earnings call transcript for G-III Apparel Group.
Now what
G-III paired strong guidance with its strong results, forecasting that in the current fiscal year, it will earn between $3.18 and $3.28 per share on sales of $3.3 billion. The current quarter, in particular, should see G-III earn between $0.13 and $0.23 per share on sales of "approximately $650 million."
One caveat bears pointing out, though: Although G-III is forecasting much stronger results for the year as a whole than Wall Street has been predicting Q1 guidance looks a little light. The Street is currently forecasting sales in the neighborhood of what G-III says it will make ($648 million). However, analysts were expecting G-III to earn $0.27 per share on those sales.
