By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing – Five Below (NASDAQ:FIVE) stock climbed higher premarket Friday after the discount retailer posted strong quarterly earnings following the close Thursday.
The company’s numbers reflected consumers’ search for discounted items given teh difficulkt financial conditions as they come out of the pandemic, with comparable sales increasing by 162% versus the first quarter of fiscal 2020.
At 9:05 AM ET (1305 GMT), Five Below stock traded 7.4% higher premarket.
Five Below had closed all of its stores due to the Covid-19 for part of last year and hence gave numbers for the 2019 quarter as well.
Diluted income per share in the first quarter ended May 1 was 88 cents when it was forecast to come between 56 cents and 68 cents. For the same quarter of fiscal 2019, diluted income per share had come at 46 cents.
Net sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 were higher by 63.9% from $364.8 million in the same quarter two years ago.
The company continued its decision of not giving guidance for the full year in the wake of the pandemic.
At the same time, for the second quarter of fiscal 2021, it has forecast net sales to fall in the range of $640 million to $660 million. Diluted income per share is expected to come between $1.01 and $1.13.