Burlington Stores Q3 Loss Widens, Despite Higher Sales; Sees Higher Comps In Q4

(RTTNews) - Off-price retailer Burlington Stores Inc. (BURL), which went public in October, reported Tuesday a wider net loss in its third quarter, despite higher net sales and comparable store sales.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Burlington Stores expects comparable store sales to increase between 2 percent and 3 percent, and adjusted EBITDA margin rate to be 30-40 basis points better than last year.

In pre-market activity, shares gained $0.64 or 2.28 percent, and traded at $28.74.

President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Kingsbury stated, "We are continuing to improve our execution, as we delivered a 28.3% increase in Adjusted EBITDA, a 10.0% overall sales growth and a 3.9% comparable store sales increase."

The company's third-quarter net loss was $16.86 million, compared to loss of $7.45 million last year. Adjusted net loss, which excluded certain items, amounted to $3.33 million. Pro forma adjusted net loss per share was $0.05 during the latest quarter, compared to loss of $0.02 per share last year.

On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected loss per share of $0.06 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Total revenue grew to $1.07 billion from last year's $975.85 million. Total net sales went up 10 percent to $1.06 billion from $967.89 million a year ago, whereas six analysts estimated revenues of $1.05 billion.

The company attributed the sales growth mainly to a $53.2 million increase in sales related to new stores and stores previously opened that are excluded in its comparable-store sales, and a 3.9 percent increase in comparable-store sales.

Gross margin rate increased 40 basis points year-over-year to 39 percent, driven by improved merchandise margin. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter increased 28.3 percent to $62.5 million from $48.7 million last year, representing an 80 basis point improvement in Adjusted EBITDA margin rate.

Kingsbury added, "We remain focused on the on-going transformation of the Burlington model to be a leading destination for customers searching for on-trend, branded merchandise at a great value. In addition, we are focused on executing our growth drivers of improving comparable store sales, expanding our retail store base and enhancing our operating margins in the future."

Burlington Stores shares closed Monday's trading at $28.10, up $0.08 or 0.29 percent.