Jul 14, 2021
L Brands increases second quarter guidance
Jul 14, 2021
Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works parent company L Brands, Inc. announced on Tuesday that it is increasing its second quarter earnings guidance.
The company is now forecasting a second quarter earnings per share range of $1.20 and $1.30, compared to its previous guidance of $0.80 to $1.00. The company currently expects to report second quarter operating income of more than $400 million for the Bath & Body Works segment, and more than $200 million for the Victoria’s Secret segment.
The guidance increase was principally driven by higher than forecasted merchandise margin rates, as strong customer response to merchandise assortments and disciplined inventory management enabled a reduction in promotional activity.
While second quarter 2020 sales were negatively impacted by store closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, sales for the first nine weeks of the second quarter of 2021 increased 12 percent compared to sales of $2.101 billion for the same period of 2019.
L Brands reported net sales of $2.351 billion for the nine weeks ended July 3, 2021, compared to net sales of $1.369 billion for the nine weeks ended July 4, 2020.
L Brands is working on plans to split Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works into two separate, standalone companies. The process is expected to be complete by August.
The company also announced that The Bath & Body Works capital structure will include an authorization of a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program, among other actions.
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