UPDATE: Burlington Stores Posts Upbeat Q1 Profit

Burlington Stores

posted a profit in the fiscal first quarter. Burlington Stores swung to a quarterly profit of $11.8 million, versus a year-ago loss of $5.6 million. Excluding certain items, its earnings climbed to $0.25 per share from $0.08 per share. Burlington Stores in March had expected earnings of $0.19 to $0.23 per share. Its revenue rose 5.9% to $1.14 billion, while same-store sales surged 2.7%. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.22 per share on revenue of $1.13 billion. Its total expenses increased 3.2%. Merchandise Inventories fell to $707.6 million from $727.2 million at the end of the first quarter last year. Tom Kingsbury, President and Chief Executive Officer said, “We are extremely pleased with our solid results in the first quarter as we continued to build upon our momentum from 2013 with both strong sales and bottom line performance.” For the current quarter, Burlington Stores expects a loss of $0.09 to $0.12 per share, on sales growth of 5% to 6%. Analysts projected a loss of $0.09 per share on sales of $1.02 billion. It expects same-store sales growth of 2% to 3% for the same period. Burlington Stores reiterated its forecast for the year. The company expects net income of $1.25 to $1.35 per share on net sales growth of 5.8% to 6.8%. The company opened 2 new stores during the first quarter. Burlington Stores shares fell 1.43% to close at $28.17 yesterday.