For the fourth quarter, Steve Madden net sales totaled 336.4 million US dollars, down by 2.3% compared to similar period in 2015. Net sales for the wholesale division decreased by 5.1% reaching 251.5 million US dollars. Retail net sales increased by 7.1% and totaled 84.9 million US dollars. Retail comparable store sales for the fourth quarter of 2016 increased by 1.1%.

For fiscal year 2016, the company's net sales totaled 1.4 billion US dollars, a 0.4% decrease compared to the previous fiscal year. In the same period, wholesale net sales decreased by 2.4% totaling 1.1 billion US dollars. Retail net sales increased by 9.3% to reaching 262.8 million US dollars. Retail comparable store sales for fiscal year 2016 increased by 4.0%.

Diluted EPS for fiscal year 2016 is now expected to be at the high end of the company’s previously provided guidance range of 1.98 US dollars to 2.03 US dollars.
 
Edward Rosenfeld, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We are pleased with our fourth quarter performance, with earnings per share expected to be at the high end of our guidance range despite the challenging retail environment. Sales were lower than anticipated, due largely to softness in cold weather accessories as well as our decision to wind down our relationship with our distributor in Asia as we plan to transition to a new business model in the region in 2017. However, the sales shortfall was offset by better-than-anticipated gross margin, with both our wholesale footwear and wholesale accessories segments expected to show strong gross margin improvement compared to last year’s fourth quarter. We also expect our tax rate to be lower than forecast due to the income tax benefit from stock option activity during the quarter.”