Burlington Stores posted higher year-over-year profits and revenues in its third quarter, while home merchandise sales were hit by the company’s tariff mitigation strategy.
Net income was $104.8 million, or $1.63 per diluted share, versus $90.6 million, or $1.40 per diluted share, in the year-earlier quarter. Adjusted for one time events, net income was $116 million, or $1.80 per diluted share, versus $100 million, or $1.55 per diluted share, in the period a year prior, the company stated.
A MarketBeat-published analyst consensus estimate called for earnings per adjusted diluted share of $1.59 and revenue of $2.74 billion.
Comparable sales increased 1% in the quarter year over year. Total revenues were $2.71 billion versus $2.53 billion in the year-earlier quarter.
As for full-year guidance, Burlington now expects total sales to increase by 8%, comps to increase in the range of 1% to 2% and adjusted earnings per diluted share in the range of $9.69 to $9.89. In its previous outlook, Burlington expected total sales to increase by 7% to 8%, comps to increase in the range of 1% to 2%, and an adjusted EPS in the range of $9.19 to $9.59.
In a conference call, Kristin Wolfe, Burlington executive vice president and CFO, said homewares sales were relatively soft in the third quarter, comping below the chain average. Michael O’Sullivan, the company’s CEO, explained tariff mitigation strategies affected the homewares business in the quarter.
“We reduced our sales and receipt plans for categories where the margin impact was too significant,” O’Sullivan said. “We did not feel like we could raise retails in those categories, and we did not want to accept the margin compression. That meant that in some businesses, especially some categories in home, our inventory levels and assortments were very light in Q3.”
In announcing the financial results, O’Sullivan added, “Total sales increased 7% in the third quarter, while comparable store sales increased 1%. Traffic to our stores fell off significantly after the back-to-school period driven by unseasonably warm temperatures in our major markets. Our comp trend then picked up to mid-single-digits in mid-October once the weather cooled, and that strong trend has continued through the first three weeks of November. We were very pleased with our strong margin and earnings performance in the third quarter. We achieved an adjusted EBIT margin increase versus last year of 60 basis points and grew adjusted EPS by 16%. Our merchandising and operating teams did an outstanding job mitigating the negative margin impact from tariffs. We are passing along all of this third quarter upside to our full year 2025 earnings guidance.”
