Talbots Beats on the Top Line

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

Talbots (NYS: TLB) reported earnings on April 12. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended Jan. 28 (Q4), Talbots beat expectations on revenues and missed expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue shrank slightly, while GAAP loss per share improved.


Margins shrank across the board.

Revenue details
Talbots booked revenue of $289.4 million. The nine analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expected to see a top line of $269.6 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 1.1% lower than the prior-year quarter's $292.6 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 -$0.52. The 10 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ anticipated -$0.51 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS were -$0.77 for Q4, compared to -$0.04 per share for the prior-year quarter.

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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 24.1%, 510 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was -14.5%, 1,430 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was -18.4%, 1,740 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $284.4 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is -$0.07.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $1.09 billion. The average EPS estimate is -$0.63.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a one-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 168 members rating the stock outperform and 216 members rating it underperform. Among 125 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 46 give Talbots a green thumbs-up, and 79 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Talbots is hold, with an average price target of $2.64.

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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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