Big Lots Tumbles as Sales Miss Estimates, Analyst Says COVID-19 Helped Company to Over-earn By Investing.com

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Shares of Big Lots (NYSE:) are down more than 14% in premarket trading Friday after the company reported worse-than-expected Q1 net sales.

The retailer $1.37 billion in Q1 net sales, down 15% YoY and missing the analyst consensus of $1.46 billion. A Q1 loss per share stood at 39c, compared with EPS of $2.62 in the same period last year.

Inventory stood at $1.34 billion in the quarter, up 49% YoY and above the expected $996.1 million. The company reported a gross margin of 36.7%, compared to 40.2% in the year-ago period and below the consensus projection of 39.4%.

Big Lots said it remains optimistic about its opportunities to deliver value in the long run and plans to continue taking steps to cut costs.

“We have reacted quickly to the changes in consumer demand by increasing value offerings to our customers, resulting in a significant acceleration to three-year comparable sales growth in the mid-teens in May,” said CEO Bruce K. Thorn.

“As a result, we missed our sales plan by approximately $100 million, the vast majority in April, while supply chain impacts across gross margin and SG&A continued to be significant headwinds.”

Thorn also noted that the company witnessed a material deceleration in sales growth in April.

KeyBanc analyst Bradley Thomas said BIG delivered weak results, as feared by many heading into the print.

“Results align with weakness seen in our Key First Look Data, where we warned BIG 1Q results could have downside risk. Looking ahead, BIG forecasts a y/y decline of MSD-HSD in comps for 2Q on higher promotional activity resulting in significant gross margin headwind, as well as continued SG&A increase due to supply chain challenges,” Thomas told clients.

Telsey Advisory Group analyst Joseph Feldman took note of a Q1 miss and lowered outlook amid April deceleration.

“It appears that COVID-19 helped the company over-earn in the past two years, with the reset underway. Big Lots has a lot of initiatives to improve the business, but we wait to see results,” Feldman told clients in a note.