Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE:ANF) shares tumbled Tuesday after the retailer reported an unexpected loss in its fiscal first quarter, with freight and product costs weighing on sales.
Abercrombie also slashed its sales outlook for fiscal 2022, anticipating that economic headwinds will remain at least through the end of the year.
It now sees revenue flat to up 2%, compared with a prior forecast of a 2% to 4% growth. Analysts had been looking for a year-over-year increase of 3.5%, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates.
Abercrombie reported a net loss in its fiscal first quarter of $14.8 million, or 32 cents per share, compared with net income of $42.7 million, or 64 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding one-time items, Abercrombie lost 27 cents per share. Analysts had expected the company to earn 8 cents a share during the quarter.
Sales grew 4% to $812.8 million from $781.4 million a year earlier. That was ahead of expectations for $799 million.
Said CEO Fran Horowitz Fran Horowitz, Chief Executive Officer, said, “Net sales at Hollister were in line with expectations. By region, the U.S. continued to outperform, EMEA net sales returned to positive territory, and APAC was impacted by COVID lockdowns in China.
“We continued to reduce our promotional activity, contributing to our eighth consecutive quarter of AUR improvement. This was more than offset by higher-than-expected freight and product costs."
Abercrombie shares have fallen 23% year to date, as of Monday’s market close.
ANF shares lost eight dollars, or 29.9%, to $18.73.
