UPDATE: Kate Spade Posts Downbeat Q4 Earnings, But Sales Surge

reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. The New York-based company posted quarterly earnings of $126.5 million, or $0.99 per share, compared to $185.2 million, or $1.48 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding items, the company's adjusted earnings came in at $0.24 per share. Its sales climbed 44.7% to $399 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.28 per share on revenue of $390 million. Direct-to-consumer comparable sales climbed 28% in the quarter. Net sales for Kate Spade North America climbed 50.5% to $327 million, while net sales for Kate Spade International jumped 50.6% to $60 million. Net sales for the Adelington Design Group segment slipped 40.5% to $12 million. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales slipped to 57.8% in the quarter from 61.6%. Selling, general & administrative expenses climbed 33.0%, to $182 million in the quarter. Kate Spade ended the quarter with $184 million in cash and cash equivalents, versus $130 million at the end of the year-ago quarter. Craig A. Leavitt, Chief Executive Officer of Kate Spade & Company, said, "We are rapidly becoming a powerful, global, multichannel lifestyle brand across women's, men's, children and home. We remain focused on a partnered approach to expanding our footprint and margins, including the agreements with best-in-class home partners we announced this morning and our recently announced watch license with Fossil Group. We continue to advance along our two axes of growth – product category expansion and geographic expansion – as we apply the right resources to targeted initiatives to maximize profitability and so that ours is a long-term growth story." Kate Spade reaffirmed 2015 adjusted EBITDA of $185 million to $200 million. Kate Spade shares gained 1.13% to $35.70 in pre-market trading.