Clothing and accessories retailer Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) reported Q3 CY2024 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 6.3% year on year to $1.36 billion. Its GAAP profit of $1.10 per share was 28.7% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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“We are pleased to announce record third quarter sales and earnings, both of which exceeded our expectations. These results were driven by outperformance across all three business segments – Retail, Subscription and Wholesale,” said Richard A. Hayne, Chief Executive Officer.

Company Overview

Founded as a purveyor of vintage items, Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) now largely sells new apparel and accessories to teens and young adults seeking on-trend fashion.

Apparel Retailer

Apparel sales are not driven so much by personal needs but by seasons, trends, and innovation, and over the last few decades, the category has shifted meaningfully online. Retailers that once only had brick-and-mortar stores are responding with omnichannel presences. The online shopping experience continues to improve and retail foot traffic in places like shopping malls continues to stall, so the evolution of clothing sellers marches on.

Sales Growth

A company’s long-term performance is an indicator of its overall quality. While any business can experience short-term success, top-performing ones enjoy sustained growth for years.

Urban Outfitters is a mid-sized retailer, which sometimes brings disadvantages compared to larger competitors benefiting from better economies of scale.

As you can see below, Urban Outfitters’s sales grew at a tepid 6.5% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years (we compare to 2019 to normalize for COVID-19 impacts), but to its credit, it opened new stores and increased sales at existing, established locations.

This quarter, Urban Outfitters reported year-on-year revenue growth of 6.3%, and its $1.36 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 1.8%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow by 5% over the next 12 months. Still, this projection is noteworthy and indicates the market is factoring in success for its products.

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Store Performance

Number of Stores

A retailer’s store count influences how much it can sell and how quickly revenue can grow.

Urban Outfitters opened new stores quickly over the last two years and averaged 2.2% annual growth, faster than the broader consumer retail sector.

When a retailer opens new stores, it usually means it’s investing for growth because demand is greater than supply, especially in areas where consumers may not have a store within reasonable driving distance.

Note that Urban Outfitters reports its store count intermittently, so some data points are missing in the chart below.

Same-Store Sales

The change in a company's store base only tells one side of the story. The other is the performance of its existing locations and e-commerce sales, which informs management teams whether they should expand or downsize their physical footprints. Same-store sales gives us insight into this topic because it measures organic growth for a retailer's e-commerce platform and brick-and-mortar shops that have existed for at least a year.

Urban Outfitters’s demand has been spectacular for a retailer over the last two years. On average, the company has increased its same-store sales by an impressive 4% per year. This performance suggests its rollout of new stores is beneficial for shareholders. We like this backdrop because it gives Urban Outfitters multiple ways to win: revenue growth can come from new stores, e-commerce, or increased foot traffic and higher sales per customer at existing locations.

In the latest quarter, Urban Outfitters’s same-store sales rose 1.5% year on year. This was a meaningful deceleration from its historical levels. We’ll be watching closely to see if Urban Outfitters can reaccelerate growth.

Key Takeaways from Urban Outfitters’s Q3 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Urban Outfitters blew past analysts’ gross margin expectations this quarter. We were also excited its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. Zooming out, we think this quarter featured some important positives. The stock traded up 5.7% to $42.42 immediately following the results.

Urban Outfitters had an encouraging quarter, but one earnings result doesn’t necessarily make the stock a buy. Let’s see if this is a good investment. What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here, it’s free.