Q2 Apparel, Accessories and Luxury Goods Earnings: Guess (NYSE:GES) Earns Top Marks

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Q2 Apparel, Accessories and Luxury Goods Earnings: Guess (NYSE:GES) Earns Top Marks

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As the Q2 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers in the apparel, accessories and luxury goods industry, including Guess (NYSE:GES) and its peers.

Within apparel and accessories, not only do styles change more frequently today than decades past as fads travel through social media and the internet but consumers are also shifting the way they buy their goods, favoring omnichannel and e-commerce experiences. Some apparel, accessories, and luxury goods companies have made concerted efforts to adapt while those who are slower to move may fall behind.

The 17 apparel, accessories and luxury goods stocks we track reported a slower Q2. As a group, revenues missed analysts’ consensus estimates by 1.3% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 12.6% below.

Big picture, the Federal Reserve has a dual mandate of inflation and employment. The former had been running hot throughout 2021 and 2022 but cooled towards the central bank's 2% target as of late. This prompted the Fed to cut its policy rate by 50bps (half a percent) in September 2024. Given recent employment data that suggests the US economy could be wobbling, the markets will be assessing whether this rate and future cuts (the Fed signaled more to come in 2024 and 2025) are the right moves at the right time or whether they're too little, too late for a macro that has already cooled.

Thankfully, apparel, accessories and luxury goods stocks have been resilient with share prices up 5.5% on average since the latest earnings results.

Best Q2: Guess (NYSE:GES)

Flexing the iconic upside-down triangle logo with a question mark, Guess (NYSE:GES) is a global fashion brand known for its trendy clothing, accessories, and denim wear.

Guess reported revenues of $732.6 million, up 10.2% year on year. This print was in line with analysts’ expectations, but overall, it was a mixed quarter for the company with underwhelming earnings guidance for the full year.

Carlos Alberini, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “During the second quarter we delivered revenue growth of 10%, in line with our expectations. This performance was fueled by the rag & bone acquisition and strong wholesale performance in our Europe and Americas businesses. All our segments, except for Asia, delivered top-line growth. Our bottom-line results reflect our decision to significantly increase our marketing investments compared to last year’s spend to support the international expansion of our brands, including our core Guess brand as well as the new additions to our portfolio – Guess Jeans and rag & bone.”