Why it's happening: Quarterly consolidated net sales fell 2.1% year-over-year to $169.8 million, hurt by a 0.9% decline in comparable-store sales. That said, The Container Store's guidance called for a decline in comps of 3% to 4%. And the company was quick to point out revenue actually climbed 0.9% after converting Elfa's net sales from Swedish krona to U.S. dollars based on last year's conversion rate. That translated to a net loss of $5.2 million, or $0.11 per share, compared to its guidance range of a net loss of $0.12 to $0.14, and a $0.07-per-share net loss achieved in the year-ago period. Here again, TCS noted a net loss is typical for its first quarter, which usually represents around 20% of the year's total sales.
Analysts, on average, were anticipating a wider net loss of $0.13 per share, albeit on slightly higher revenue of $173.6 million.
For the full fiscal year 2015, The Container Store expects revenue of $800 million to $815 million, based on expected store openings and comps in the range of minus 2% to 0%. That should result in net income per diluted share of $0.30 to $0.38. By comparison, Wall Street's models called for higher fiscal 2015 revenue of $815.8 million, but earnings near the lower end of TCS' guidance at $0.32 per share.
In the end, while The Container Store's report certainly held good news given its outperformance on both comps and the bottom line, it's unsurprising investors took some of their early profits off the table given its top-line miss and mixed guidance.
