Burlington Stores (BURL) Guides Q4 to Low End of Range

Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE: BURL), a nationally recognized off-price retailer of high-quality, branded apparel at everyday low prices, today reaffirmed guidance for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ending January 30, 2016.

Tom Kingsbury, President and Chief Executive Officer stated, “While we are pleased with the strong response to our gift assortments especially in fragrances, bath and body and home, these increases have been offset by headwinds affecting our cold weather assortments, especially in coats and outerwear. Accordingly, we now expect comparable store sales to be approximately flat for the fourth quarter.”

Mr. Kingsbury added, “Notwithstanding the weather, our execution of the off price model continues to pay dividends for us as evidenced by the fact that our comp store sales, excluding cold weather categories, are expected to increase approximately 4% in the fourth quarter. In addition, we remain very excited about the abundance of merchandise available in the marketplace which is expected to positively impact 2016.”

For the fourth quarter ending January 30, 2016, the Company currently expects:

• Net sales to increase approximately 3.7%, versus its previous guidance of an increase of 3.7% to 4.7%;
• Comparable store sales to be approximately flat, on top of last year’s 6.7% increase, versus its prior guidance in the range of flat to up 1%; and
• Adjusted net income per diluted share to be in the range of $1.44 to $1.46 on 73.4 million fully diluted shares outstanding, versus its prior guidance in the range of $1.44 to $1.48 on 74.4 million fully diluted shares outstanding.
• Fourth quarter-to-date, the Company invested $77 million of cash to repurchase 1.6 million shares of its common stock, fully utilizing its initial share repurchase authorization announced in June 2015. On November 24, 2015, the Company announced that its Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to an additional $200 million of common stock.
• Other fourth quarter expectations include:

• Comparable store sales excluding cold weather categories to increase approximately 4% vs. last year;
• Comparable store inventory position to be approximately flat to last year inclusive of $50 million of accelerated Easter receipts; and
• Inventory aged 91 days and older to be below last year levels.

(Street sees Q4 EPS of $1.48 on revenue of $1.55 billion.)

For the full fiscal year 2015 (the 52-weeks ending January 30, 2016), the Company currently expects:

• Net sales to increase approximately 5.9%, versus its prior guidance of an increase in the range of 5.8% to 6.3%;
• Comparable store sales for the full year to increase approximately 2.0%, versus its prior guidance of an increase between 2.0% to 2.5%; and
• Adjusted net income per diluted share in the range of $2.28 to $2.30 on 75.5 million fully diluted shares outstanding, versus its prior guidance in the range of $2.28 to $2.32 on 75.7 million fully diluted shares outstanding.

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