Five Below Falls 15% On Disappointing Holiday Sales

Shares of Five Below Inc FIVE tumbled following updated net sales and earnings guidance for the nine weeks ended January 3, 2015.

The company announced that net sales for the nine weeks ended January 3 increased by 24.5 percent to $230.7 million from $185.3 million in the comparable nine-week period of fiscal 2013, while comparable store sales for this period increased by 3.2 percent over the comparable period in fiscal 2013, with the increase driven by average ticket.

The company now expects net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 to be in the range of $262 million to $263 million, assuming an approximate 3 percent increase in comparable store sales, and net income to be in the range of $32.5 million to $33.0 million, with a diluted income per common share range of $0.59 to $0.60 on approximately 54.7 million estimated weighted average shares outstanding.

The guidance was below analyst expectations of $265.75 million and EPS of $0.61 for fiscal Q4.

Five Below recently traded at $37.00, down 15.3 percent.