“This was by every measure that matters, our best quarter, of our best year, in our 43-year history. We achieved our highest quarterly earnings ever. Net income per share and operating income were both three times higher than the results of any prior third quarter. Store traffic was up over 40 percent and all of our comparable stores generated positive cash flow year to date. We are thankful to our millions of customers and over 5,000 team members for once again making us a Billion-Dollar Brand, as we aim to become a multibillion-dollar retailer in the years ahead”, commented Mark Worden, Shoe Carnival’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

Third Quarter Results

In the third quarter of 2021, Shoe Carnival’s net sales increased by 29.8%, reaching 356.3 million US dollars, as compared to net sales of 274.6 million US dollars in the same period of last year. E-commerce comparable sales rose by 12.5%, as compared to the third quarter of 2020. The company highlighted that the progressive easing of COVID-19 restrictions allowed its customer base to return to a more normal lifestyle, which contributed to increasing demand.

Gross profit margin grew by 8.4 percentage basis points to 40.4% in the third quarter of fiscal 2021, as compared to gross profit margin of 32.0% in the same quarter of 2020.

In the third quarter of the current year, net income totalled 46.8 million euros, or 1.64 US dollars per diluted share, on a comparable basis to net income of 14.7 million US dollars, or 0.51 US dollars per diluted share, in the third quarter of the prior year.

Nine Months Results

In the first nine months of 2021, which ended on the 30^th of October, Shoe Carnival’s net sales amounted to 1.02 billion US dollars, as compared to net sales of 722.9 million US dollars in the same period of last year. In this period, comparable stores sales rose by 41.6%.

Gross profit margin increased to 40.3% in the first nine months of the current year, as compared to gross profit margin of 27.9% in similar period last year.

During the first nine months of fiscal 2021, net income reached 134.3 million US dollars, or 4.69 dollars per diluted share, as compared to net income of 8.5 million US dollars, or 0.30 US dollars per diluted share in the same period of the previous year. The company noted that the 4.69 US dollars of diluted net income per share earned in this period of fiscal 2021 exceeded the diluted net income per share earned in the last five years combined.

Full-Year Outlook

The company raised once again its outlook for fiscal 2021. Now, it expects diluted net income per share between 5.00 US dollars and 5.10 US dollars and net sales in the range of 1.285 billion US dollars to 1.290 billion US dollars.