Dive Brief:
Express on Wednesday reported steep fourth quarter and full year sales and margin declines, though shares rose amid GameStop-style investor activity as noticed by MKM Partners analysts, and as losses narrowed. Net sales in the quarter fell 29% year over year to $430.3 million, beating MKM Partners expectations for a 37% decline.
Comps, including store and online sales, fell 28% in the quarter, according to a company press release. Gross margin in the period contracted to 16.6% of sales from 27% a year ago.
However, year over year, EBITDA loss narrowed to $45 million from $168.7 million, operating loss narrowed to $62.7 million from $189.9 million, and net loss narrowed to $53.3 million from $141.6 million. Adjusted net loss, (which excludes federal pandemic tax relief, non-cash impacts of the deferred tax asset valuation allowance and pretax impairment charges), reached $43.1 million, from net income of $13.8 million in 2019.