Bath & Body Works lowers sales outlook

Bath & Body Works reported net sales of 1.559 billion dollars for the second quarter, a decrease of 3.6 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

The company reported earnings per diluted share of 43 cents for the quarter compared to 52 cents for the same period of the prior year.

Second quarter operating income was 188 million dollars compared to 242 million dollars last year, and net income was 99 million dollars compared to 120 million dollars last year.

The company has narrowed sales expectations for the fiscal year to reflect better-than-expected bottom line results and the impact of debt and share repurchases in the second quarter.

Commenting on the second quarter trading results, Gina Boswell, CEO of Bath & Body Works, said in a statement, “In the second quarter, we delivered net sales in line with our expectations, and the early benefits of our cost optimization and merchandise margin improvement initiatives helped drive earnings which outperformed our expectations.”

For fiscal 2023, the company expects net sales to decline 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent compared to 7.560 billion dollars in 2022. The company now expects full-year 2023 earnings per diluted share to be between 2.85 dollars and 3.15 dollars, compared to 3.40 dollars in 2022. The company expects full-year 2023 adjusted earnings per diluted share to be between 2.80 dollars and 3.10 dollars.

The company expects third quarter net sales to decline 2.5 percent to 4 percent compared to 1.604 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2022. Third quarter earnings per diluted share are expected to be between 30 cents and 40 cents compared to 40 cents in the third quarter of 2022.