Abercrombie & Fitch reports Q2 EPS $2.50, consensus $2.22

Reports Q2 revenue $1.1B, consensus $1.1B. Comparable sales up 18%. Fran Horowitz, CEO, said, “Our team continued to execute at a very high level in the second quarter, resulting in better than expected sales growth and profitability. The strength of our brand portfolio and improvements we’ve made in global capabilities resulted in broad-based growth across regions, brands and channels. The Americas led our performance this quarter with net sales growth of 23% on top of 19% growth last year, along with continued strong results in EMEA with growth of 16%. By brand, Abercrombie brands achieved growth of 26% on top of 26% growth last year, and Hollister continued its sequential acceleration to growth of 17% with better-than-expected summer and back-to-school selling. Consistent with the first quarter, we delivered improved profitability driven by gross profit rate expansion and operating leverage, with a second quarter operating margin of 15.5% and record second quarter operating income of $176 million. We delivered a strong first half of the year, and we are increasing our full-year outlook. Although we continue to operate in an increasingly uncertain environment, we remain steadfast in executing our global playbook and maintaining discipline over inventory and expenses. We are on track and confident in our goal to deliver sustainable, profitable growth this year, while making strategic long-term investments across marketing, digital and technology and stores to enable future growth.”