L Brands' September Comparable Sales Grow on Innovations
L Brands, Inc. (LB) recently came out with its comparable-store sales (comps) results for the five weeks ended Oct 4, 2014. Reported comps fared better than the analysts' expectations.
As announced on Oct 9, comps of this specialty retailer of women’s intimate and other apparel, climbed 6%. The rate of growth accelerated from 5% reached in August.
Net sales for September increased 9% to $853.5 million from $786 million in the prior-year period. We believe that the company’s operational efficiencies and new and innovative collections augmented sales.
Retailers benefited during the month under review from improving job prospects and back-to-school promotional strategies. Retailers such as Zumiez, Inc. (ZUMZ) and Stein Mart Inc. (SMRT) saw their comparable-store sales rising 6.6% and 4.9%, respectively, during September.
L Brands, which competes with Citi Trends, Inc. (CTRN), saw its comparable-store sales for September rising 4% at Victoria’s Secret Stores & Victoria’s Secret Beauty and 10% at Bath & Body Works & The White Barn Candle Co. Sales rose 5% at Victoria’s Secret Direct.
For the 35-week period ended Oct 4, net sales increased 7% to $6,685 million from $6,275 million in the year-ago period, while comparable-store sales grew 4%.
L Brands, which currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and operates about 2,955 company-owned stores, now projects a low single-digit comps increase for the month of October.
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