By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com -- Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE:BURL) took a dive Thursday following the publication of its fourth quarter earnings report.
The company missed consensus expectations for both earnings and revenue, resulting in a 15% decrease in its share price
The American department store retailer announced earnings per share of $2.53 on revenue of $2.6 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $3.23 on revenue of $2.78 billion. Comparable store sales increased 6%.
The company said they experienced lower traffic to stores due to several external factors, partially driven by the late delivery of some critical receipts in December.
“Ordinarily we would be happy with 6% comp growth in Q4 but compared to the rest of 2021 this was a slowdown in our trend," said the company's CEO Michael O’Sullivan.
"There are specific actions that we have identified and that we can take to better manage these receipt issues going forward,” O'Sullivan added.
Burlington said that due to the uncertainty surrounding the pace of the recovery of consumer demand and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is not providing sales or earnings guidance for Fiscal 2022.
However, they expect to open 120 new stores while relocating or closing 30 stores.