In case you don’t follow footwear trends, sandals are a hot item.
Shoe Carnival Inc., the chain controlled by former Jacksonville Jaguars owner Wayne Weaver, beat analysts’ expectations for first-quarter earnings, in part because of a surge in sandals sales.
“We sold a ton of sandals at Shoe Carnival,” CEO Mark Worden said in the company’s May 23 conference call.
Shoe Carnival reported total sales rose 6.8% to $300.4 million in the first quarter ended May 4, higher than the average analyst’s forecast of $292 million, according to Zacks Equity Research.
Adjusted earnings of 64 cents a share were 4 cents higher than the first quarter of fiscal 2023 and also 4 cents higher than the average analyst’s forecast, according to Zacks.
“During the quarter trends significantly improved at our Shoe Carnival banner when we kicked off our new digital-first marketing campaign,” Worden said.
“The customer response to our sample assortment has been outstanding, with total sales growth of 14% in sandals during the quarter and accelerated sales growth in April after the Easter holiday period ended.”
Worden also said the company’s results were helped by better-than-expected sales at its Shoe Station stores, while its Rogan’s Shoes chain met expectations.
The company operated 371 Shoe Carnival, 31 Shoe Station and 28 Rogan’s stores at the end of the quarter. It completed the acquisition of Rogan’s in February.
“The results are clear. Our new digital-first marketing approach and compelling product assortment are working,” Worden said.
However, Monness, Crespi & Hardt Co. Inc. analyst Jim Chartier thinks the company may have trouble keeping up its recent strong trends.
“Given the success of the campaign in March and indications of continued consumer interest in sandals, Shoe Carnival continued to invest in marketing through April, driving better than expected sales,” he said in a research note.
“The company now faces some uncertainty as June approaches as the consumer has consistently pulled back during non-event periods over the last couple of years (and pre-pandemic),” said Chartier, who maintains a “neutral” rating on the stock.
Williams Trading analyst Sam Poser, who has a “buy” rating, is more optimistic about the stock.
“The 1Q24 EPS beat highlights how Shoe Carnival’s focus on national brands, strong relationships with those national brands, and little reliance on private label, makes it more compelling to consumers than its competition, which is over-reliant on private label product,” Poser said in his note.
“Fiscal year 2024 guidance was maintained but appears more conservative than it did when first provided in early March,” he said.
Weaver is chairman of Evansville, Indiana-based Shoe Carnival and its largest shareholder, controlling 32.7% of the stock with his wife, Delores.
Medtronic plc’s Jacksonville-based division, which makes surgical instruments for ear, nose and throat physicians, is growing faster than the rest of the medical device giant’s businesses.
Medtronic reported May 23 that adjusted revenue for its fourth quarter ended April 26 rose 5.4% to $8.6 billion. While the company does not report specific results for the ENT business, it said that division grew revenue by a high single-digit percentage.
The Dublin, Ireland-based company reported total fiscal 2024 revenue of $32.4 billion and is projecting growth of 4% to 5% in fiscal 2025.
“We’re at the beginning stages of new product cycles. The runway from the differentiated technologies we’ve recently launched, along with the innovation we will launch over the next 12 months, give me significant confidence in our ability to drive durable growth,” CEO Geoff Martha said in a conference call, according to a company transcript.
Medtronic is forecasting adjusted earnings of $5.40 to $5.50 a share in fiscal 2025, up from $5.20 in 2024.
Winter Haven-based SouthState Corp. is expanding westward with an agreement to buy Texas-based Independent Bank Group Inc. for $2 billion in stock.
The deal announced May 20 will add 60 branches in Texas and 31 in Colorado to Southstate’s 251 offices in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia and North and South Carolina.
Southstate has been in the Jacksonville market since a 2020 merger with CenterState Bank Corp., which had eight branches in the area.
CenterState acquired those offices in 2012 from the failed First Guaranty Bank & Trust Co. of Jacksonville in a deal arranged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
Florida will remain SouthState’s biggest market after the Independent Bank merger with 27% of the company’s deposits, but Texas will become its second largest market with 22%, according to a company presentation.
Raymond James analyst Michael Rose upgraded SouthState from “market perform” to “outperform” after the merger announcement.
“In our view, the transaction checks essentially all the boxes that we and investors look for in a deal,” Rose said in a research note.