VF Corp blows past Wall Street estimates in the fiscal second quarter

VF Corp (NYSE: VFC) published its financial results for the fiscal second quarter on Friday that blew past Wall Street estimates. The company expressed confidence that signs of recovery were evident in the recent quarter after months of inactivity due to the Coronavirus pandemic that pushed its stores into temporarily shutting down earlier this year.

VF Corp currently has a per-share price of £61 versus a much higher £77.61 per share at the start of the year. In March, the COVID-19 crisis pushed the stock down to as low as £35.61 per share. In comparison, VF Corp had performed fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of close to 40%.

At the time of writing, the U.S. company is valued at £23.46 billion and has a price to earnings ratio of 96.74.

VF Corp’s Q2 financial results versus analysts’ estimates

The owner of prominent brands like North Face and Timberland said that its net income in the second quarter printed at £198.78 million that translates to 48.01 pence per share. In the comparable quarter of last year, VF Corp had reported a much higher £502.56 million of net income or £1.20 per share.

On an adjusted basis, the apparel and footwear company earned 51.11 pence per share in Q2. In terms of revenue, VF Corp posted £2.02 billion versus the year-ago figure of £2.46 billion. In separate news from the U.S., Intuitive Surgical also published its quarterly results on Thursday.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast the company to record 37.17 pence of per-share earnings on £1.93 billion of revenue in the third quarter. VF Corp announced organisational changes earlier this week.

CEO Steve Rendle’s comments on Friday

CEO Steve Rendle commented on the earnings report on Friday and said:

“We are beginning to see signs of stabilisation and strength across all aspects of our business, supporting our decision to raise the dividend and provide a financial outlook for the balance of the year.”

For fiscal 2021, VF Corp now forecasts £6.97 billion of sales and 93 pence of adjusted earnings per share. Analysts, on the other hand, expect £6.81 billion of revenue and 86 pence of per-share earnings for the Denver-based company in the full financial year, as per FactSet.

VF Corp’s board declared 37.94 pence per share of dividend on Friday.