Children’s Place Beats The Street

For a change of pace in retail lately, the Children’s Place has posted some solid quarterly results.

Same-store sales were strong and allowed the children’s apparel retailer to beat estimates on profit, and made way for a chipper sales forecast for the year. All in, Children’s Place saw same-store sales increase 6.7 percent for the first six week of the current quarter and comparable sales are up 9.7 percent. Quarterly dividends were also up to 20 cents per share from 15 cents per share.

For the just-finished quarter, profit was $17.5 million (or 87 cents a share) compared with a profit of $17 million (or 79 cents a share) a year earlier. Sales were up 4 percent to $498.5 million.

Store closures, notably, are part of the increased profitability pictures, as 16 more locations shut down, leaving the chain with a grand total of 1,069 nationwide.

The market, unsurprisingly, liked the news, and shares have seen a 3.5 percent uptick today (March 16) after rising to historic territory on Monday.