The Children’s Place updates Q4 and FY15 guidance

Comparable retail sales at the Children’s Place have running positive 7.3 percent through the first nine weeks of the fourth quarter, representing approximately 85 percent of its planned sales volume for the quarter. The company said these comparable retail sales results are being driven by increases in key retail selling metrics despite continued weakness in traffic.

The Children’s Place President and Chief Executive Officer Jane Elfers, said, “We have consistently stated that our multi-pronged transformation strategy would begin to deliver results in the back half of 2015 and our announcement today clearly indicates that we are on track. We now expect comparable retail sales to increase in the range of 6 percent to 7 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to previous guidance of a low-single digit increase and a comparable retail sales increase of 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014. For the full year 2015, we now expect comparable retail sales to be approximately flat, compared to previous guidance of slightly negative comparable retail sales.”

Updated Q4 and fiscal year outlook

The company now expects comparable retail sales to increase in the range of 6 percent to 7 percent in the fourth quarter, compared to previous guidance of a low-single digit increase and now expects to achieve fourth quarter adjusted net income per diluted share in the range of 1.05 dollars to 1.12 dollars, compared to previous fourth quarter adjusted diluted EPS guidance of 0.93 dollar to 1.03 dollars and adjusted diluted EPS of 0.94 dollar in the fourth quarter of 2014.

For the full year 2015, the company now expects comparable retail sales to be approximately flat, compared to previous guidance of slightly negative comparable retail sales and now expects to achieve adjusted diluted EPS in the range of 3.47 dollars to 3.54 dollars, compared to previous full year 2015 adjusted diluted EPS guidance of 3.35 dollars to 3.45 dollars and adjusted diluted EPS of 3.05 dollars in full year 2014.