Market Insider

Shares of discount retailer Five Below rise after earnings beat

Source: Five Below

Shares of discount retailer Five Below rose more than 12 percent Thursday, after the company reported earnings that topped Wall Street expectations. The stock closed slightly above $42 per share, nearing highs not seen since last December.

The chain of stores, which sells products under $5, reported fourth-quarter earnings Wednesday of 90 cents, topping a Thomson Reuters consensus estimate by a penny.

Quarterly sales also beat estimates, coming in at $388.1 million compared to a $387.6 million Reuters consensus.

Comparable sales — a metric closely watched by Wall Street for retail stocks — rose 1 percent for the quarter ended Jan. 28, Five Below said, matching FastSet estimates.

"We are excited to be opening approximately 100 new stores this year and to bring our unique and differentiated concept to California," Chief Executive Joel Anderson said in a statement on Wednesday, offering some guidance on this year.

The Philadelphia-based discount retailer says it expects total sales made in 2017 to fall within $1.21 billion to $1.23 billion, well above Reuters' full-year revenue forecast of $999.8 million. Five Below also anticipates a low-single-digit increase in comparable sales in 2017.

With Thursday's gains, the stock is now up more than 5 percent for the year and is up around 2 percent over the past 12 months.

Five Below year-to-date performance

Source: FactSet