What happened
Shares of snow sportswear-maker Zumiez (ZUMZ 5.64%) fell 12.8% as of 10:15 a.m. ET on Friday, after the company missed analyst targets for fourth-quarter sales and earnings last night.
Heading into Q4, Wall Street had predicted Zumiez would earn $1.76 per share on sales of $353.2 million in the quarter. In fact, Zumiez says its earnings were only $1.70 per share, and sales were $346.7 million.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Zumiez grew its sales less than 5% year over year in Q4. Net income was up barely 1%. Business slowed markedly in the fourth quarter of the year. For all of 2021, Zumiez was able to report nearly 20% revenue growth to $1.2 billion -- and 62% growth in net income to $4.85 per share.
CEO Rick Brooks emphasized this full-year performance, boasting that "fiscal 2021 was a year of tremendous growth and record profitability for Zumiez." But that dramatic slowdown in Q4 has to sting.
Now what
Worse, it appears that things will get worse for Zumiez before they get better. As the first quarter of fiscal 2022 got underway, Zumiez reports that its "total first quarter-to-date sales for the 35 days ended March 5, 2022 decreased 1.9%" relative to the same period last year. Management now "anticipates that net sales for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 will be between $215 million and $221 million, down meaningfully to the prior year" -- and well below the $258 million in sales Wall Street will be looking for.
At best, Zumiez says it might earn $0.10 per share this quarter, and at worst, nothing at all.
No wonder investors are disappointed.
