Cliff Sifford, Shoe Carnival's President and CEO, stated: “We are pleased with our comparable store sales growth and our ability to deliver strong first quarter earnings. While the quarter started off very challenging due to adverse weather (...) In addition, our initiative launched in fiscal 2014 to bring fulfillment of our e-commerce orders in-house has continued to pay dividends as our customers continued to take advantage of the increase in both selection and depth of sizes available to them online.”

The company reported net sales of 252.8 million US dollars for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, a 7.2% increase, as compared to net sales of 235.8 million US dollars for similar period in 2014. Comparable store sales increased 3.0% in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.

The gross profit margin for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 remained flat at 29.5%.

Shoe Carnival's net earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2015 were 10.4 million US dollars, or 0.52 US dollars per diluted share. For similar period in 2014, Shoe Carnival reported net earnings of 9.2 million US dollars, or 0.45 US dollars per diluted share. First quarter earnings for fiscal 2015 includes approximately 0.01 US dollars of additional expense within cost of sales, which the company attributing this situatuin to the west coast port congestion.

In light of the results now presented, Shoe Carnival expects fiscal 2015 net sales to be in the range of 977 million US dollars to 991 million US dollars, with a comparable store sales increase in the range of 1.5% to 3.0%. Earnings per diluted share for the fiscal year are expected to be in the range of 1.42 US dollars to 1.48 US dollars. This represents an increase of 12% to 17% over fiscal 2014 earnings per diluted share of 1.27 US dollars.