“Caleres began 2024 in strong fashion, achieving earnings per share ahead of expectations, generating record first quarter consolidated gross margin, and making significant progress on our key strategic initiatives, all while investing for the long-term. While the consumer demand environment remained challenging, we achieved growth in sales and profitability from our Lead Brands and strong margin performance across the Brand Portfolio (…). At the same time, Famous Footwear maintained total year-over-year sales levels and generated solid gross margins (…)”, commented Jay Schmidt, President and Chief Executive Officer.

First Quarter Results

In the quarter that ended on the 4^th of May, the company’s net sales amounted to 659.2 million US dollars, reflecting a decrease of 0.5% on a comparable basis to the same period of last year.

First quarter net sales from the Famous Footwear segment increased by 0.1% over the same period of the prior year to 349.6 million US dollars, while net sales from the Brand Portfolio segment declined by 2.6% over the same period of the prior year to 317.2 million US dollars. Caleres added that direct-to-consumer sales accounted for nearly 69% of total net sales.

In the first quarter of the current fiscal year, the company’s gross profit totalled 309.1 million US dollars, as compared to 302.7 million US dollars in the same quarter of 2023, while gross margin improved 120 basis points year-over-year to 46.9%.

Caleres reported net earnings of 30.9 million US dollars (or earnings per diluted share of 0.88 US dollars) in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, on a comparable basis to net earnings of 34.7 million US dollars (or earnings per diluted share of 0.97 US dollars per diluted share) in a similar period of last fiscal year.

“Looking ahead, we are confident in our ability to deliver earnings per share in line with our guidance range in 2024,” said Schmidt. “Longer-term, we believe we are exceptionally well positioned to execute our clear and actionable strategic plan, invest to fuel our growth initiatives, and drive sustained value for our shareholders”, Schmidt concluded

For the full year 2024, the footwear company expects consolidated net sales to be flat to up 2% over 2023 and earnings per diluted share to be in the range of 4.30 US dollars to 4.60 US dollars.

As for the second quarter, the company expects net sales to increase 3% to 4% over the same year-ago period and earnings per diluted share to be in the range of 1.20 US dollars to 1.25 US dollars.