Conn's Down 32% After 4Q Preliminary Results and 2015 Guidance

Conn's CONN is trading down 32 percent Thursday after releasing its 4Q14 results and also provided earning guidance for 2015. The report highlighted same-store sales jumping 33.4 percent and preliminary retail segment net sales up 44.8 percent from last year's fourth quarter. However, fiscal 2015 guidance was revised to $3.40 - $3.70, down previously from $3.80 - $4.00 per diluted share. A contributing factor to the guidance includes bad debt from unexpected increase in delinquency rates between December and January and an underachieving increase in sales. Theodore M. Wright, Conn's chairman and CEO commented on the negatives. "Credit segment performance did not keep pace and delinquency and charge-offs rose in December and January. Sales driven portfolio growth combined with seasonal portfolio increases placed pressure on our collections operation and execution deteriorated." A couple downgrades have also been released in reaction to the movement. Stephens have downgraded CONN from Overweight to Equal-Weight. Oppenheimer downgraded CONN to Market Perform. CONN closed Wednesday at $55.80 and opened Thursday $35.45, a plummet of 36 percent.