The Container Store unexpectedly lost money, and now its stock is getting annihilated
Analysts had been expecting a report of $0.05 earnings per share, but the home goods retailer instead said it lost $0.04. Additionally same-store sales were up just 0.5%, lower than the 0.7% estimated by analysts.
This sent the stock spiraling downward, as of around 8:30 a.m. the stock was down 26% at $5.25.
In the quarterly earnings call Thursday, Container Store CEO Kip Tindell said the bad news was related to high expenses.
"I would like to say that although we continued to achieve meaningful traction with our all-important strategic initiatives during the third quarter and that these initiatives are benefiting overall sales, we are very disappointed with our bottom line results this quarter," he told analysts. "The shortfall versus our expectations was largely driven by expense items, the majority of which are non-recurring and unusual in nature"
In addition to the miss for the third quarter, the company cut its outlook for the fourth quarter. The company projects a $0.19-$0.22 earnings per share versus analysts expectations of $0.29. Additionally the company projects comparable store sales decline of 1-1.6%.