Elizabeth Arden Q4 Loss Widens - Update

(RTTNews) - Elizabeth Arden, Inc. (RDEN) Tuesday reported a sharply wider loss for the fourth quarter, as the beauty products retailer's sales fell with a steeper-than-anticipated decline in sales of celebrity fragrances. The shares fell about 23 percent in pre-market trading.

Looking ahead, the company expects a modest improvement in adjusted earnings for fiscal 2015 over the prior year with continued improvement in fiscal 2016.

For fiscal 2015, the firm currently anticipates gross margin expansion due to improved pricing, better mix, lower discounts and realization of reduced supply chain and product costs.

Sales of celebrity fragrances, particularly the Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift fragrances were down and the decline was steeper than anticipated.

For the fourth quarter, net loss attributable to shareholders widened significantly to $155.94 million or $5.24 per share from $5.01 million or $0.17 per share in the previous year.

On an adjusted basis, excluding non-recurring items, net loss per share for the latest quarter was $1.04, while the company posted net income of $0.10 per share last year.

On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss per share of $0.34 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net sales for the quarter fell 28.4 percent to $191.72 million from $267.58 million a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, net sales were $201.2 million, down 24.8 percent from the preceding year. Seven analysts projected revenues of $241.64 million.

Total operating expenses advanced to $135.36 million from $123.82 million in the previous year.

For fiscal 2014, the company posted a net loss of $145.73 million or $4.90 per share, compared to a profit of $40.71 million or $1.33 per share in the prior fiscal. On an adjusted basis, net loss per share was $0.55, while the firm posted net earnings of $2.14 per share a year earlier.

Net sales for the year fell 13.4 percent to $1.16 billion. Excluding the impact of foreign currency rates, the decrease was 12.8 percent.

Elizabeth Arden also announced that investment funds affiliated with Rhône Capital L.L.C. have agreed to purchase $50 million of its redeemable preferred stock and also will receive warrants to purchase 2.5 million shares of its common stock at an exercise price of $20.39 per share. This represents about 7.6 percent of the company's outstanding common stock on an as-exercised basis.

RDEN closed Monday's regular trading at $19.61, down 2.82 percent. In the pre-market activity on Tuesday, the shares are down 23.05 percent.