The Children's Place Announces Preliminary Unaudited Results for the Fourth Quarter 2022 - Seite 2

Ms. Elfers concluded, “The significant reduction of input costs and the strong focus on expense and inventory management led by our new CFO, Sheamus Toal, position us well to deliver for investors in 2023. Combined with our industry-leading digital penetration as a result of our successful digital transformation that began several years ago and was completed during the pandemic, our strong stable of brands, the success of our fleet optimization strategy and our rapidly growing Amazon business, we expect to return to double digit operating margins for the back half of 2023 and beyond.” 

Fourth Quarter 2022 Preliminary Unaudited Results 
While the results are still preliminary and subject to the Company’s detailed year end closing process and its independent audit, the Company now expects to report the following results for the fourth quarter of 2022:

• Net sales are expected to be approximately $454 million to $456 million, versus the Company’s prior guidance of $460 million at the low end, and down approximately $52 million to $54 million, or down approximately 10.2% to 10.6%, versus last year. 
• Operating loss for the quarter is expected to be in the range of (14.2%) to (15.6%) of net sales and adjusted operating loss is expected to be (13.4%) to (14.8%) after excluding approximately $3.6 million of adjustments, primarily related to store level asset impairments and fleet optimization costs to close certain retail locations, versus the previous guidance of adjusted operating income in the range of 2.5% to 3.3% of net sales. 
• Loss per share for the fourth quarter of 2022 is expected to be in the range of ($4.24) to ($4.63) and adjusted loss per share is expected to be in the range of ($4.02) to ($4.41) after excluding approximately $3.6 million of adjustments, as compared to the Company’s previous guidance of adjusted earnings per diluted share of $0.50 to $0.75.
• Fourth quarter inventory is now expected to be up 5.5% to 6.5% versus last year, compared to a year-over-year increase of 24% ending the third quarter of 2022. Carryover inventory levels are expected to be significantly lower than we originally projected. 

The Company stated that factors leading to a significant net loss in the fourth quarter included: