Q3 results ponderate trading for Jones Group

Closing the week, Jones Apparel Group and Body Central saw

quite a deal of action after both reported seasonal fugures. Jones Group (NYSE:JNY) had a tough third quarter in its fiscal year 2013 due to a poor sales growth on weak retail environment in the US.

Likely, shares of Body Central Corp. fell 16 percent in extended trades after the women's apparel retailer reported a loss for the third quarter on lower revenues that missed analysts' expectations.

Jones Group’s net sales dropped 1.3 percent as it saw revenue decline across most of its businesses and despite its earnings’ jump of 68 percent due to cut interest expenses and flat operating margins.

As analysis team at Trefis highlighted, “So far in the year, the company has used more than 90 million dollars cash in its operations, while it generated about 13 million dollars last year. This difference is attributable to larger investments in working capital, higher interest and tax payments, and lower operating earnings. Jones Group ended the quarter with 27.8 million dollars in cash down from 81 million dollars in Q2 fiscal 2013.”

Meanwhile, shares of Body Central Corp. slipped in overnight trade, shredding 16 percent after the women's apparel retailer reported a loss for the third quarter on lower revenues that missed analysts' expectations. The company also said it has reduced its corporate staff by 11 percent with immediate effect due to the longer transition period.

Our third quarter results reflect the continued difficulty of driving traffic into our stores and the overall traffic slowdown within our segment. While our comparable sales decreased 18 percent for the quarter, we realized positive comp sales performance in our bottoms and shoe businesses," summarised Thursday Brian Woolf, Body Central's CEO.

The Florida-based company’s net loss for the third quarter was 8.98 million dollars or 0.55 per share. On average, six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of 0.19 dollars per share for the quarter.

In the UK, TK Maxx’s parent posted a 127 percent increase in pre-tax profits, which came in at 80.5 million pounds in the year to February 2. As reported by ‘Retail Week’, TJX UK, the operator of TK Maxx brand, increased sales in the year to date by 12.8 percent, reaching 1.8 billion pounds across retail and wholesale. Sales also upped for its retail business: to 1.5 billion pounds last year.