Boot Barn ( NYSE: BOOT ) has released its preliminary results for Q3 ended December 24, 2022. It estimates net sales rose 5.9% Y/Y to $514.6M, which would beat consensus estimates of $509.64M.
Same-store sales fell 3.6% due to a strong comparable period last year. Retail store same-store sales dropped ~0.8% and e-commerce same-store sales were down 15.2%. Boot Barn's merchandise margin dropped by 190 basis points compared to the prior-year period, driven by higher freight costs.
Net EPS is expected to be $1.74 (vs $2.27 in Q3 2021), which would miss consensus estimates of $1.78.
Boot Barn opened 12 new stores in Q3, bringing its total store count to 333. It has opened 33 stores YTD.
CEO Jim Conroy said: "We delivered total sales at the high end of our guidance, despite late December storms that negatively impacted sales during the highest volume days of the quarter. New store sales continued to overperform our expectations and we were able to deliver retail store same store sales that were roughly flat as we cycled an incredible 55.7% retail comp growth in the same period last year."
"Once again, we were able to maintain our predominantly full-price selling environment in what seemed to be a highly promotional holiday period across retail. Normalizing for expected freight headwinds, we were able to achieve a merchandise margin rate nearly in line with last year’s record-setting performance."
Boot Barn plans to report its final Q3 results and provide Q4 guidance in late January 2023.
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Boot Barn estimates 5.9% higher prelim sales in Q3