GameStop Corp. (NYSE:GME) reported upbeat earnings for its fourth quarter, while sales missed views.
The company, out of Grapevine, Texas, reported that it while exiting the year with approximately $500 million in cash, despite a challenging sales environment.
GameStop also significantly improved capital structure, deploying proceeds from sale of non-core business units to reduce debt by $401 million, repurchase 38.1 million shares for $199 million to leverage the Company’s market position as the pure-play, omni-channel leader in gaming.
It also claimed to have ptimized operations by improving inventory with a 31% reduction at year end and implementing initiatives to accelerate GameStop’s transformation with initiatives in digital, online, experiential retail and its loyalty program and continuing to de-densify the store base.
Began fiscal 2020 with increased financial flexibility and continued focus on key priorities to optimize, stabilize and transform GameStop to achieve sustainable profitable long-term growth.
George Sherman, GameStop’s chief executive officer, said, "We delivered profitability, on an adjusted basis, ahead of our updated expectations, marking progress on our strategy to evolve our operating model and position GameStop for long-term profitable growth."
The Company continues to execute its four strategic priorities. Progress toward these goals in fiscal 2019 include:
Optimizing the core business by improving efficiency and effectiveness across the organization; delivering expense reductions of $130 million for the year on an adjusted basis; decreasing inventory by 31% compared to fiscal 2018 that helped drive 160 bps gross margin expansion; and further optimizing global store base de-densifying locations and began the wind down of operations in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
GME shares opened the final day of a turbulent week up 29 cents, or 6.5%, to $4.70.
