“I would like to thank our dedicated team members and vendor partners for their support in driving growth during the key holiday period and setting us up for continued growth in 2024. With the acquisition of Rogan’s, we are now at an all-time high of 429 stores. Rogan’s will be immediately accretive to our results in 2024 and the level of accretion is expected to meaningfully increase in 2025. The integration progress to date has been encouraging, and we are raising the full synergy expectation to $2.5 million and accelerating the integration schedule, with the expectation of now realising full synergies in 2025,” said Mark Worden, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Fourth Quarter Results

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, Shoe Carnival reported total net sales of 280.2 million US dollars, a decrease of 3.6%, on a comparable basis to the same period of the previous year. However, this “performance was at the high end of the company’s expectation, driven by strong sales growth during the key December holiday period”.

Fourth quarter comparable store sales declined by 9.4% year-over-year, mainly “due to soft trends prior to the December holiday period and weather disruptions in January”, added Shoe Carnival.

In the three months to the 3^rd of February, the company’s gross profit margin decreased to 35.6% from 38.3% in a similar period of fiscal 2022, thanks to “lower merchandise margins and buying, distribution and occupancy deleveraging on lower sales”.

Shoe Carnival posted a net income of 15.5 million US dollars, or 0.57 US dollars per diluted share, in the last quarter of fiscal 2023, as compared to the net income of 21.6 million US dollars, or 0.79 US dollars per diluted share, registered in the same quarter of the prior year.

Fiscal 2023 Results

The US footwear retailer achieved net sales of 1.17 billion US dollars in fiscal 2023, a decrease of 6.8% compared to the previous fiscal year. Also in line with quarterly results reported during the year, Shoe Carnival’s full year net income totalled 73.3 million US dollars, or 2.68 US dollars per diluted share, on a comparable basis, compared to 110.1 million US dollars, or 3.96 US dollars per diluted share, in fiscal 2022.

Fiscal 2024 Outlook

“Since 2019, EPS has increased 84%, gross profit margin expanded 570 basis points, and net sales grew 13%. The Fiscal 2024 outlook builds on this sales growth and profit transformation led by the Company’s acquisition strategy, sustained gross profit margin, and increased omnichannel sales”, reads the statement from the company.

For fiscal 2024, Shoe Carnival expects net sales to be in the range of 1.21 billion US dollars to 1.1.26 billion US dollars, representing growth of 4% to 6% over the prior fiscal year, with comparable store sales expected to be in the range of negative 3% to 1% as compared to 2023. Gross profit margin is expected to be approximately flat and earnings per share are expected to be in the range of 2.50 US dollars to 2.70 US dollars.