Guess Inc (NYSE:GES) stock surged as much as 18% higher in early deals after the designer fashion brand’s quarterly earnings report shone – at $665 million revenue breezed past analyst forecasts for $638.7 million, helping drive earnings to almost double the figure that Wall Street pencilled in.
The iconic jeans brand marked earnings per share at 72 cents, versus consensus expectations pitched at 39 cents. It represented a 74% improvement year-over-year.
“Our international businesses continued to perform strongly with robust revenue growth and our Americas Retail business achieved a sequential improvement in performance compared to the first quarter, as we drove better customer conversion in stores,” Guess CEO Carlos Alberini said in a statement.
“Most of our businesses delivered better-than-expected operating results, driven by solid revenue performance, strong gross margin results and effective cost management, which contributed to an operating profit of $65 million and a 9.7% operating margin for the period, well ahead of our expectations.”
Alberini said the company’s strong performance in the year gave it the confidence to raise its profit outlook.
The company now expects to report adjusted EPS for 2023 of $2.88 to $3.08, compared to its prior guidance of a range of $2.60 to $2.90. Analysts, per Zacks, expected full-year EPS of $2.81.
It expects an adjusted operating margin of 9% to 9.4%, compared to its previous expectation of 8.2% to $8.8%.
Guess also raised the low end of its revenue guidance range, now expecting revenue growth of 2.5% to 4% compared to its previous forecast of growth between 2% and 4%.
In New York, Guess was up $2.59 or 14% changing hands at US$20.90 in premarket trade.