Shares of Victoria's Secret (VSCO 1.20%) plummeted 29.7% on Thursday after the lingerie, clothing, and beauty-products retailer announced reasonably solid quarterly results but followed with underwhelming forward guidance.
Victoria's Secret's decent fourth quarter wasn't enough
For its fiscal fourth quarter ended Feb. 3, 2024, Victoria's Secret's net sales grew 3% year over year, to $2.082 billion, including a comparable-sales decline of 6% (noting that there was an extra week in this fourth quarter, as compared to 2022). On the bottom line, that translated to adjusted (non-GAAP) net income of $204 million, or $2.58 per share. Analysts, on average, were expecting adjusted earnings of $2.46 per share on roughly the same revenue.
Victoria's Secret CEO Martin Waters said weekly sales trends were "volatile" during the quarter but improved in North America on a sequential basis. North America sales were down 3.6% year over year to $1.154 billion, while international sales grew 23.8% to $194.3 million. Victoria's Secret's direct sales channels saw revenue climb 10.1% year over year to $734 million.
What's next for Victoria's Secret investors?
The company issued guidance for first-quarter net sales to decline in the mid-single-digit percent range year over year -- far below estimates for a modest 1.9% decline. For the full fiscal year 2024, the company expects sales to fall in the low-single-digit percent range to around $6 billion, again below estimates for sales of $6.18 billion.
All told, this report didn't do much to instill confidence that Victoria's Secret's turnaround is taking hold anytime soon. The stock is responding in kind.
