Steve Madden Q4 net sales rise 8.6 percent

REPORT _ Steve Madden in its sales results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2013,

updated its fiscal year 2013 EPS guidance and provided initial fiscal year 2014 sales and EPS guidance. For the fourth quarter, its net sales were 342.6 million dollars, an 8.6 percent increase over the same period of 2012. Net sales for the wholesale division grew 10.5 percent to 273.1 million dollars. Retail net sales rose 1.7 percent to 69.5 million dollars. Retail comparable store sales for the fourth quarter of 2013 decreased 6.7 percent.

For fiscal year 2013, net sales were 1.314 billion dollars, a 7.1 percent increase compared to fiscal year 2012. Wholesale net sales grew 6.6 percent to 1.104 billion dollars. Retail net sales rose 9.6 percent to 209.6 million dollars. Retail comparable store sales for the fiscal year 2013 decreased 2.1 percent.

Commenting on the results, Edward Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our wholesale business met expectations during the fourth quarter, but our retail segment was below plan primarily due to softer-than-anticipated performance in December. We believe our product assortment remained on-trend, as evidenced by our continued strong performance in the wholesale segment, but traffic in our own retail stores was disappointing. Looking ahead, while we are confident that we can maintain solid momentum in our wholesale business, we are cautious on the near-term outlook for our retail segment given the recent softness in traffic and sales trends.”

Diluted EPS for the fiscal year 2013 is now expected to be approximately 1.97 dollars, the low end of the previously provided guidance range of 1.97 dollars-2.03 dollars. For fiscal year 2014, the Long Island headquartered company expects that net sales will increase 5-7 percent over net sales in 2013. Diluted EPS is expected to be in the range of 2.05 dollars-2.15 dollars.