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Reuters
Published
Mar 13, 2012
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Urban Outfitters sees more full-priced sellings

By
Reuters
Published
Mar 13, 2012

Urban Outfitters Inc (URBN.O) said full-price selling in the current quarter has improved sequentially, but it expects discounting to remain higher than last year.

The company's shares, which had crossed the $40 mark about two years ago and since then have lost nearly a quarter of their value, fell to $27.66 in after-market trade. They had closed at $29.51 on Monday on the Nasdaq.

"The improvement that we've seen in full-priced selling is over the fourth quarter. And I want to make that clear to everyone that on a year-over-year basis, it's still a difficult environment," a company executive said on a conference call.

Margins have declined for at least five quarters as Urban Outfitters has been forced to offer profit-eroding discounts to clear out slow-moving inventory.

They fell more than 9 percent in the fourth quarter as the company had to resort to steep discounting during the holiday season.

Urban Outfitters has been criticized for unattractive merchandise -- especially at its Anthropologie unit -- which had led to a build-up in inventory.

The Philadelphia-based company, known for its bohemian and hipster designs, has been stepping up turnaround efforts by shuffling its management, revamping styles and trying to clean the inventory glut.

Urban Outfitters, which also operates Free People, BHLDN and Terrain stores, saw fourth-quarter profit fall to $39.3 million, or 27 cents a share, from $75.2 million, or 45 cents a share, a year ago. Sales rose 9 percent to $730.6 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expected the company to earn 29 cents a share on revenue of $740 million.

Shares of the company closed at $29.51 on Monday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Ranjita Ganesan; Editing by Joyjeet Das)

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