Carter's Outruns Estimates Again

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

Carter's (NYS: CRI) filed its 10-K on Feb. 29. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Carter's beat expectations on revenues and crushed expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue grew significantly and GAAP earnings per share shrank.

Margins dropped across the board.

Revenue details
Carter's recorded revenue of $606.6 million. The seven analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expected to see revenue of $581.3 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 22% higher than the prior-year quarter's $495.3 million.

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Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.63. The nine earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ averaged $0.44 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS of $0.59 for Q4 were 1.7% lower than the prior-year quarter's $0.60 per share.

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Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 34.2%, 300 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 9.6%, 230 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 5.7%, 130 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $528.7 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.43.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $2.34 billion. The average EPS estimate is $2.47.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 278 members out of 284 rating the stock outperform, and six members rating it underperform. Among 109 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 105 give Carter's a green thumbs-up, and four give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Carter's is hold, with an average price target of $40.13.

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At the time thisarticle was published Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor ofMotley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy

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