Signet shares plummet following poor holiday sales

By

Gabriella Lacombe

Published
Jan 17, 2019

Signet Jewelers Limited shares dropped by over 22% after the diamond jewelry retailer experienced larger than expected declines in its legacy product lines and reduced traffic during key December gifting weeks.

In an announcement of its sales for the nine weeks ended January 5, 2019, the company said its same store sales were down 1.3%. 

As a result of this poor performance, the company now expects its same store sales in the fourth quarter to be down between 1.6% and 2.5%, with predicted GAAP earnings per share between $2.32 and $2.53, compared to a previously predicted range of $3.02 to $3.33.

Signet's revised predictions for full fiscal year 2019 expect same store sales to remain approximately flat, with GAAP earnings per share of $8.16 and $7.93. 

The jewelry retailer anticipates total sales of $6.26 billion. 

In a press release, Signet Chief Executive Officer Virginia C. Drosos suggested store closings and a reassessment of product might be on the horizon as the company plans its next steps. 

“We will move decisively to improve profitability through aggressively optimizing our cost structure and continuing to right-size our store base, as well as more effectively managing our inventory," Drosos said. "We expect to accelerate initiatives to enhance our product assortment, marketing personalization and analytics, promotional effectiveness, service offerings, and e-commerce to deliver a more seamless and engaging OmniChannel customer experience." 

Drosos said the company will release its updated plans for fiscal year 2020 during its fourth quarter earnings report in March.