Buckle (BKE) Hikes Dividend, Announces Management Changes - Analyst Blog

Apparel and accessories retailer The Buckle, Inc. (BKE) announced a hike in its quarterly dividend and also authorized a special cash dividend. Simultaneously, the company shuffled its management.

Buckle raised its quarterly dividend by 4.5% to 23 cents per share and announced $2.77 special cash dividend. Both dividends are payable on Jan 27, 2015 to shareholders of record as on Jan 15, 2015.

However, the rate was comparatively lower than the 10% hike announced in 2013, whereas the cash dividend was significantly up from $1.20 paid last year.

The hike was driven by the company's robust liquidity position.

Buckle also introduced several changes to its management at its quarterly meeting on Dec 8, 2014. The company appointed Kelli Molczyk, currently serving as Divisional Merchandise Manager, as Vice President of Women's Merchandising division.

Further, Diane Applegate will assume the responsibilities of Vice President of Supply Chain and Merchandising Operations. She is currently the Director of Merchandising Operations. Thomas. B. Heacock will perform dual responsibilities of Treasurer and Corporate Controller and Vice President of Finance. He will be inducted into the company's executive committee.

These changes will be implemented with immediate effect.

Last week, Buckle reported a 1% decrease in its comparable stores sales for the month of November. This the second successive decline following increase for four consecutive months. Comps for October declined 1.2%.

Buckle's third-quarter fiscal 2014 comps also fell 0.3% year over year. However, sales for the quarter grew 1.9% to $292.2 million, almost in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company's adjusted earnings per share came in 84 cents, a penny ahead from the year-ago quarter but missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 87 cents. Weakness in the Women's category remains a persistent problem for Buckle as it is taking the shine off its healthy Men's and accessories business.

At present, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock operates 463 retail stores across 44 states.

Other Stocks That Warrant a Look

Other retail stocks that are worth consideration include Bebe Stores, Inc. (BEBE), Foot Locker, Inc. (FL) and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. (PSUN). All these carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock.

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