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Buckle's (BKE) Sales Momentum Continues Via 33.8% Rise in July

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The Buckle, Inc. (BKE - Free Report) has been reporting a sturdy sales performance for the past few months, which continued through the month of July. Total net sales for the four-week fiscal month ended Jul 31, 2021 rose 33.8% to $93.7 million from the net sales of $70 million reported in the same period of the last fiscal year.

Also, the metric jumped 38.8% from the net sales of $67.5 million recorded in the four-week comparable period of fiscal 2019. A glance at the preceding five months indicates that net sales climbed 17.8%, 75.4%, 718%, 240.2% and 5%, respectively.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting impacts that saw closure of all the company’s brick-and-mortar stores, comparisons are made with the comparable period of fiscal 2019. For the fiscal month ended Jul 31, 2021, total sales at the men’s unit soared 40% from the figure recorded during the four-week period ended Aug 3, 2019 while the metric at the women’s business surged 33.5%. While the men’s category contributed 54.5% to the overall monthly sales, the women’s unit accounted for nearly 45.5% of the same.

On combining the men’s and women’s categories, accessory sales for fiscal July were up 49% while footwear sales ascended 35.5% from the number registered in the comparable period of fiscal 2019. Both the accessory and footwear categories represented 10% and 7%, respectively, of the overall monthly sales. For the comparable period of fiscal 2019, sales constituted 9% and 7.5%, respectively, for both these categories.

Encouragingly, net sales for the 13-week fiscal quarter ended Jul 31, 2021 surged 36.6% to $295.1 million from $216 million generated in the 13-week fiscal quarter ended Aug 1, 2020. The metric also climbed 44.8% from $203.8 million registered in the comparable fiscal period ended Aug 3, 2019.

For the 26-week fiscal period ended Jul 31, 2021, net sales skyrocketed 79.3% to $594.2 million from $331.4 million delivered in the last fiscal year’s 26-week period ended Aug 1, 2020. Also, the metric jumped 46.7% from $405.1 million generated in the comparable period of fiscal 2019.

What’s More?

In the wake of the coronavirus scare, sales in fiscal 2020 were marred by the shutdown of all the company’s physical stores on Mar 18, 2020. Accordingly, management plans to report total net sales per month compared with the past two years’ tally. Hence, it decided not to separately release comparable store sale data for the months, mostly affected by store closures. However, it expects to resume monthly reporting with August results.

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We note that Buckle presently operates 442 retail outlets across 42 states compared with 446 as of Aug 5, 2020. It is also witnessing immense strength in its online business amid the pandemic. Again, the women’s and men’s merchandise categories are making a solid progress. Shares of this presently Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) player have gained 7.7% in the past six months against the industry’s 6% decline.

Key Picks in Retail

Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF - Free Report) has a long-term earnings growth rate of 18% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Hibbett (HIBB - Free Report) , presently a Zacks #1 Ranked stock, has a long-term earnings growth rate of 17.7%.

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