Burlington Stores' Sturdy Comps, Better Pricing To Fuel Sales

In an era of ever-evolving retail landscape, Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE:BURL) has made multiple changes to its business model to adapt and stay relevant. The company has steadily increased vendor counts, made technological advancements, initiated better marketing approach and focused on localized assortments. All these endeavors have helped this NJ-based company to post decent comparable sales, and in turn fuel top-line performance.

We note that comparable store sales rose 3.8% during second-quarter fiscal 2019 compared with increase of 2.9% in the year-ago period and 0.1% in the preceding quarter. This was the 26th successive quarter of comparable store sales growth. Burlington Stores had projected comparable store sales growth of 1-2% for the quarter under review. Management now expects comparable store sales to improve 2-3% in the third quarter and 2-2.5% during fiscal 2019.

Burlington Stores, which started business as a coat-focused off-price retailer, is now focusing on “open to buy” off-price model. The current model is helping customers to get nationally branded, fashionable, high quality and rightly priced products.

The company is now focusing on underpenetrated categories, particularly home, beauty and gifts, in order to make business less weather sensitive. In fact, the company is reaping the benefits of its multichannel engagement strategy, which is evident from its favorable results. Moreover, it is gradually expanding its store fleet. The company intends to improve operating margin and lower the gap of the same compared with its peers by augmenting sales, optimizing markdowns and effectively managing inventory.

Burlington Stores has been doing quite well on the revenue front. Its revenues have not only outpaced the estimates in 11 out of the 14 trailing quarters but have also shown constant improvement over the past few quarters. In the second quarter of fiscal 2019, the top line grew 10.5%, following an increase of 7.3% in the preceding two quarter. Management now expects total sales to improve 8.5-9.5% in the third quarter and 8.8-9.3% during fiscal 2019.

Certainly, the company’s strategic endeavors and impressive performance is well reflected from the stock’s movement on the bourses. Shares of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have gained approximately 16.8% in past three months compared with the industry’s rally of 11.7%.

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