Shares of The Buckle, Inc. BKE dropped roughly 6.5% following the company’s disappointing December comparable-store sales (comps) performance. Comps for the five-week period ended Jan 2, 2016, decreased 5.4% year over year, following a 7.9% decline registered in November.
Buckle’s net sales for December came in at $182.1 million, reflecting a 4.5% year-over-year decline. In the preceding month, net sales decreased 6.8%.
Comps for the 48-week period ended Jan 2, 2016 were down 4%, while net sales over the same time frame dropped 2.5% to $1,067 million from $1,094 million recorded in the year-ago period.
Apart from Buckle, Zumiez, Inc. ZUMZ and The Gap, Inc. GPS recorded comps decline of 8.9% and 5%, respectively. On the other hand, Stein Mart Inc. SMRT registered comps growth of 1.8%.
Coming back to Buckle, sales at the company’s Men's category inched up 1% year over year. The category contributed nearly 52% to Buckle’s December sales. Sales in the Women’s category, which accounted for 48% of the company’s monthly sales, declined 10.5% year over year. Buckle, which carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell), has not been able to turn the performance of its struggling Women’s business around.
On a combined basis, accessory sales, which constituted nearly 10.5% of the company’s November sales, grew 1%, while footwear sales, which accounted for almost 5% of net sales, fell 2%.
As of Jan 7, 2016, Buckle operated 469 retail stores across 44 states.
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