Chico's FAS (CHS) reported earnings Tue 24 Nov 2015 (b/o)

** charts after earnings **

  

Chico's FAS misses by $0.07, misses on revs; Announces $300 mln share buyback:

• Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.13 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.07 worse than the Capital IQ Consensus of $0.20; revenues fell 3.7% year/year to $641.2 mln vs the $666.66 mln Capital IQ Consensus. 
• Comp store sales decreased 3.3% y/y compared to a decrease of 1.6% in prior year period, reflecting a decrease in average dollar sale and transaction count.
• Gross margin was 54.7% of net sales in the third quarter, in line with the same period last year.
• Total inventories decreased 4.8% compared to $294.2 million in last year's third quarter, primarily reflecting improved inventory management.
• Co approved a new $300 million share repurchase authorization for the Company's common stock and canceled the remainder of its December 2013 share repurchase program.