Sluggish sales in Europe, coupled with sizeable charges, more than tripled Quiksilver Inc.’s first-quarter net loss, the company said Thursday.
The firm also forecast a resumption of revenue growth later in the year, helping to elevate its shares 2 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $4.41 Friday.
For the period ended Jan. 31, the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based firm reported a net loss of $16.3 million, or 10 cents a diluted share, compared with a loss of $5.4 million, or 4 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Stripping out the impact of $8.6 million in charges, Quiksilver’s loss totaled 5 cents a share, in line with analysts’ consensus estimates.
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Quarterly net revenues receded 1.5 percent to $426.5 million, from $432.7 million in 2009. Analysts anticipated a loss of 5 cents on sales of $414 million.
“This marks the first time in the last nine quarters that we’ve grown revenues in constant currency and demonstrates that previous revenue declines are abating,” said chairman and chief executive officer Robert McKnight on the company conference call. “For the full fiscal year of 2011, we continue to expect slight growth in sales compared to last year beginning in the second half of the year.”
Gross margin for the quarter improved to 52.4 percent of sales versus year-ago margin of 51.3 percent.
By region, sales in the Americas rose 3.7 percent to $193.8 million, while sales in Europe fell 7.1 percent to $165.2 million. In Asia-Pacific, sales slid 0.1 percent to $67 million, as revenue from corporate operations tumbled 45.7 percent to $460,000.