Like many other U.S. companies, Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI) started 2020 with dynamic, positive sales before running headlong into the economic meat grinder of the coronavirus pandemic, as shown in the first-quarter 2020 financial results it released this morning.
The apparel company, which owns numerous familiar brands such as Hanes, Bali, Maidenform, Sheer Energy, L'eggs, and Beefy-T, among others, sustained an approximate 10% decline in both innerwear and outerwear sales, while its revenue and earnings per share (EPS) came up short of analyst forecasts.
Image source: Hanesbrands Inc.
The company's adjusted $0.05 EPS came in at less than half of the $0.11 analyst consensus estimate reported by Zacks Equity Research. The analysts had already figured in a major decline from the $0.27 EPS Hanesbrands reported for Q1 2019. Its revenue of $1.32 billion fell 2.72% short of analyst expectations, a nearly 17% plunge from last year's $1.59 billion.
Outerwear sales fell 10.2%, and innerware 9.4%. Operating cash flow improved by roughly $100 million year over year, with an $84 million burn in Q1 2020 versus a $194 million burn during Q1 2019.
Hanesbrands offered a concrete estimate of the exact damage COVID-19 did to its key financial metrics. It reckons earnings per share would have been $0.20 higher absent the coronavirus, speculatively giving it $0.25 EPS, close to the ballpark of last year's Q1 $0.27 EPS.
It says the coronavirus caused a $181 million revenue loss, while 2019's figures were also inflated by the now-exited C9 Champion program and DKNY license.
"We were on a pace to deliver a strong first quarter above our expectations until the late quarter impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," CEO Gerald Evans Jr. said.
