The Cato Corp. records lackluster Q3
The Cato Corp. (NYSE: CTR), a specialty retailer of value-priced women's fashion apparel, this morning reported a bleak third quarter, although earnings beat Wall Street’s mean estimate by a penny.
For the third quarter ended Nov. 3, the Charlotte, N.C.-based firm recorded net income of $2.9 million, or $0.09, a penny above the consensus of three analysts polled by Thomson Financial of $0.08 per share. The current quarter’s bottom line represents a decline of roughly 50% compared with net income of $5.9 million, or $0.18 per share for the third quarter of 2006.
Sales were $181.9 million, a 3% decrease from sales of $187.7 million last year, and below the $184.8 an analyst polled by Thomson Financial was forecasting.
Comparable store sales for the quarter decreased 5%.
The company said third-quarter results reflected a difficult retail environment and as a result led to lower sales and additional markdowns.
For the fourth quarter the company expects results will be in the range of a loss of $0.08 to $0.00 per diluted share, compared with $0.40 last year. Three analysts polled by Thomson Financial are on average projecting earnings of $0.21 per share.
The small cap said the estimate is based on comparable store sales in the range of down 7% to down 4% for the quarter.
For the year, earnings per diluted share are estimated to be in the range of $0.99 to $1.07 versus $1.62 last year. The consensus of three analysts polled by Thomson Financial is for earnings of $1.27 per share.
Shares of The Cato Corp. (CTR) were halted in pre-market trading.
