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Buckle's (BKE) Upbeat Sales Trend Continues in September

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The Buckle, Inc. (BKE - Free Report) has been putting up a stellar show for the past few months now. Its solid sales momentum continued through the month of September. Strong gains from the company’s women’s and men’s merchandise categories have been contributing to this upbeat performance for a while now. Comparable store net sales for the same fiscal month continue to be impressive too. Shares of this currently Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company ascended 4.3% on Oct 7 following its sturdy sales performance for September. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Let’s get into the numerical details.

Marvelous Sales Run

Buckle’s net sales for the five-week fiscal month ended Oct 2, 2021 rose 17.3% to $111.2 million from $94.9 million recorded in the five-week fiscal month ended Oct 3, 2020. We note that this apparel, footwear and accessories retailer registered a sales increase of 43%, 33.8%, 17.8%, 75.4% and 718%, respectively, in the preceding five months.

For the fiscal month under review, comparable store net sales for the stores open at least one year climbed 17.8% year over year. For the same period, total sales at the men’s unit increased 18.5% from the five-week period ended Oct 3, 2020 while the metric at the women’s business jumped 15.5%. While the men’s category contributed 51.5% to the company’s overall monthly sales, the women’s unit accounted for 48.5%.

On combining the men’s and women’s categories, accessory sales for the fiscal month climbed 20.5%, while footwear sales surged 30.5% from the figure registered in the comparable fiscal September of 2020. The accessory and footwear categories accounted for 8.5% and 9.5%, respectively, of the overall fiscal September 2021 sales. For the comparable period in fiscal 2020, sales constituted 8.5% each for both the categories.

For the 35-week fiscal period ended Oct 2, 2021, Buckle’s net sales surged 62% to $817.1 million from $504.4 million recorded in the previous year’s 35-week fiscal period ended Oct 3, 2020. Comparable store net sales also soared 61.8% from the prior year’s 35-week fiscal period.

What’s More?

Management also announced that Diane L. Applegate, the vice president of supply chain and merchandising operations, will retire by the end of fiscal 2021.

This Kearney, NE-based company’s shares have returned 44.5% in the year-to-date period against the industry’s 4.4% dip. Apart from experiencing a robust sales run in the past few months, it is steadily benefiting from its product assortments and youth business. The company has added youth top-to-bottom assortment to more 75 of its flagship stores, bringing to 350 stores housing youth products.

Zacks Investment ResearchImage Source: Zacks Investment Research

Buckle presently operates 442 retail outlets across 42 states compared with 446 as of Oct 7, 2020.

More Key Picks in Retail

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Abercrombie (ANF - Free Report) has a long-term earnings growth rate of 18% and a Zacks Rank of 1, currently.

Tilly’s (TLYS - Free Report) is presently a Zacks #1 Ranked stock and has a long-term earnings growth rate of 10%.

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