Shares of VF Corporation (VFC -17.37%) were taking a dive today after the diversified apparel company reported another wide loss in its first-quarter earnings report.
As of 2:29 p.m. ET, the stock was down 18.8% on the news.
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VF's struggles continue
VF reported a 5% decline in revenue to $1.67 billion, ahead of estimates at $1.64 billion. Excluding Dickies, which VF sold last November, revenue was up 1%.
Vans continued to struggle, with revenue down 8%, while The North Face, which is now its largest brand, reported 6% revenue growth. Timberland sales were up 4%.
On the bottom line, VF reported an adjusted operating loss of $95 million, excluding Dickies, which compared to a $59.8 million loss from Dickies in the quarter a year ago.
On a per-share basis, adjusted loss per share widened from $0.25 to $0.27, which was worse than the consensus at $0.22.
The company also announced a CFO transition, saying that COO Abhishek Dalmia would now also serve as CFO, replacing Paul Vogel.
Despite the loss and the sell-off in the stock, CEO Bracken Darrell struck an optimistic tone, saying, "We had a solid start to the year, beating our revenue and operating income guidance." He also said Vans' global wholesale was a source of weakness, but said that would improve in the second half of the year.
Key Data Points
What's next for VF
VF actually raised full-year guidance slightly, calling for currency-neutral revenue growth of 2%, compared with its earlier guidance of 1%-2%, and it continued to see an adjusted operating margin of 8%.
However, that wasn't enough to please investors, who also seemed to be surprised by the CFO change. Still, given the comment on the Vans sales in the second half, the sell-off in the apparel sector seems exaggerated.
