francesca’s® Updates Fourth Quarter 2017 Guidance Based on Holiday Results
January 04 2018 - 4:05PM
Francesca’s Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:FRAN) today announced that
the Company has updated its guidance for the fourth quarter ending
February 3, 2018. The updated guidance reflects holiday period
sales performance and current expectations for the remainder of the
quarter.
The Company now expects net sales for the fourth quarter ending
February 3, 2018 in the range of $137 million to $139 million,
assuming a 15% to 17% decrease in comparable sales. This compares
to previous guidance of net sales in the range of $145 million to
$150 million, assuming a 9% to 12% decrease in comparable sales.
Fourth quarter diluted earnings per share are expected to be in the
range of $0.18 to $0.23 compared to the Company’s previous guidance
range of $0.35 to $0.40. Fiscal year 2017 diluted earnings per
share are now expected to be in the range of $0.50 to $0.55. This
EPS guidance excludes the impact of the recently adopted tax law.
It is expected the new tax law will increase the fourth quarter tax
expense as the Company’s deferred tax asset will be reduced due to
the lower federal tax rate.
Steve Lawrence, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated,
“Our Holiday performance was disappointing as challenging
conversion rates and traffic trends that started in the third
quarter persisted into the holiday season. We were not able to
recapture momentum as rapidly as we expected but we believe that we
are taking the necessary steps to reinvigorate our merchandise
assortment and to drive traffic to our boutiques and online going
forward. We are confident we are taking the right actions to regain
momentum in our business and believe we will see sequential
improvement as we continue to execute on these initiatives.”
ICR Conference
As previously announced, the Company will be presenting at the
20th Annual ICR Conference to be held at the JW Marriott Orlando
Grande Lakes in Orlando, Florida on Monday, January 8, 2018 at 2:30
pm ET. Mr. Lawrence and Ms. Kelly Dilts, Chief Financial Officer,
will host the presentation.
The presentation will be webcast live at www.francescas.com
under the Investor Relations section. An archived replay will be
available two hours after the conclusion of the live event and will
remain on the website for ninety days.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this release are "forward-looking
statements" made pursuant to the safe-harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such
forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations or
beliefs concerning future events and are subject to various risks
and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ
materially from those that we expected. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: the
risk that we cannot anticipate, identify and respond quickly to
changing fashion trends and customer preferences or changes in
consumer environment, including changing expectations of service
and experience in boutiques and online, and evolve our business
model; our ability to attract a sufficient number of customers to
our boutiques or sell sufficient quantities of our merchandise
through our ecommerce business; our ability to successfully open
and operate new boutiques each year and our ability to efficiently
source and distribute additional merchandise quantities necessary
to support our growth. For additional information regarding these
and other risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking
statements, please refer to "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on
Form 10-K for the year ended January 28, 2017 filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission on March 22, 2017 and any risk
factors contained in subsequent quarterly and annual reports we
file with the SEC. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or
revise any forward-looking statement.
The Company may not issue future press releases discussing sales
trends such as this one other than associated with routine
quarterly and annual financial reporting.
About Francesca's Holdings Corporation
francesca's® is a growing specialty retailer which operates a
nationwide-chain of boutiques providing customers a unique, fun and
personalized shopping experience. The merchandise assortment is a
diverse and balanced mix of apparel, jewelry, accessories and
gifts. Today francesca's® operates approximately 723 boutiques in
47 states and the District of Columbia and also serves its
customers through francescas.com. For additional information on
francesca's®, please visit www.francescas.com.
CONTACT:ICR, Inc.Jean Fontana646-277-1214
CompanyKelly Dilts 832-494-2236Kate Venturina
832-494-2233IR@francescas.com
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