Brick-and-mortar retailers have taken a beat down in recent years primarily due to constant pressure from shoppers taking to the internet rather than the sidewalk to make purchases. In that light, analysts hadn’t exactly set the bar too high in their prediction for performance during the second quarter for specialty retailer of home décor Kirkland’s (NASDAQ: KIRK). Wall Street was expecting the Brentwood, Tennessee-based company to lose 28 cents per share during the 13 weeks ended July 29, 2017 on revenue of $126.5 million.
Early Tuesday morning, Kirkland’s reported revenue of $131.7 million, up 7% from the year prior period and topping consensus forecasts.
Same-store-sales, a closely watched growth metric between stores open at least one year, including e-commerce sales, increased 1.2%. After closing three stores and opening eight others during the quarter, the company ended the quarter with 406 locations.
Net loss for the quarter was $3.8 million, or 24 cents per diluted share, slightly worse than the net loss of $3.6 million ($0.22 per share) during the second quarter last year, but better than analyst expected by 4 cents per share.
Mike Madden, Kirkland’s CEO, commented that the quarter was in line with expectations and reflective of strategic efforts to optimize operations while maintaining momentum in their online platform. Madden added that the company’s balance sheet is in “great shape with a strong cash position and no debt outstanding on our revolving credit facility.”
The company remains optimistic about the future, reiterating its full fiscal 2017 year guidance of diluted earnings per share between $0.50 and $0.65.
Providing some return to shareholders, the KIRK board of directors authorized a $10 million share repurchase plan. The company only has about 16 million shares outstanding and closed trading Monday at $8.38.
Shares shot ahead in Wednesday activity to as high as $11.28 before slipping down some to $10.69 as the closing bell approaches for a gain of 27.6% on the day.
