Shoe Carnival’s 4Q Profit Outlook Tops Estimates; Shares Gain 5%

Shares of Shoe Carnival jumped 5.2% on Friday after the footwear company reported fourth-quarter preliminary results that exceeded the Street’s estimates. The company is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results on March 24.

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Shoe Carnival (SCVL) expects to report earnings for the quarter ending on Jan. 30, in the range of $0.50-$0.52 per share, which is higher than analysts’ estimates of $0.32 per share. Furthermore, its 4Q EPS projection is more than double the earnings of $0.24 per share posted during the same quarter last year.

The company sees revenues of $253.9 million, compared to the consensus estimates of $242.8 million and the sales of $239.9 million generated during the same period a year-ago. The company forecasted comparable store sales growth of approximately 6.4% compared to 3.2% growth in the year-ago period.

Shoe Carnival’s CEO Cliff Sifford said, “We realized a comparable store sales increase in excess of six percent, drove an impressive bottom line through incredible margin growth, and continued our explosive e-commerce growth.” (See Shoe Carnival stock analysis on TipRanks)

Following the results, Pivotal Research analyst Mitch Kummetz raised the stock’s price target to $60 (18.2% upside potential) from $48 and maintained a Buy rating. In a note to investors, the analyst said, “We suspect that strong growth was led by athletic and boots, as the COVID-driven casual/comfort trend continues, and boots were likely also helped by favorable weather in December and January.”

Kummetz added, “We also remain bullish that SCVL’s momentum can continue, especially as another round of stimulus becomes more likely.”

The rest of the Street has a bullish outlook on the stock with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 3 Buys and 1 Hold. The average analyst price target of $47 implies downside potential of about 7.4% to current levels. Shares jumped by about 38.3% over the past year.