Sally Beauty Holdings Q4 Profit Down, Misses Estimates - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Sally Beauty Holdings, Inc. (SBH) Thursday reported a decline in its fourth quarter profit, as the increase in net sales were offset by higher SG&A expenses. The company's same store sales grew 2.6 percent compared with 0.4 percent in the year-ago quarter. The company said for fiscal 2015, it expects consolidated same store sales to be slightly above 3 percent, while for the first quarter, it is likely to fall below the full year estimate as sequential, quarterly improvement is expected throughout the year. For the latest quarter, net earnings were down 4.7 percent to $61.8 million or $0.39 per share from $64.8 million or $0.38 per share a year ago.

Excluding expenses from the data security incident of $0.3 million, net of tax, adjusted earnings totaled $62.1 million or $0.39 per share. On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.40 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. Quarterly sales rose 4.2 percent to $944.3 million from $906.43 million last year, driven by same store sales growth and addition of new stores. Analysts estimated revenue of $945.38 million. Selling, general and administrative expenses grew 6.1 percent to $320.49 million from $301.93 million last year.