Like many other U.S. companies, Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI -0.82%) 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.
