Urban Outfitters 4Q Lags Street View

Urban Outfitters Inc (NASDAQ:URBN) posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit, as the clothing retailer offered steep discounts to drive sales, hurting margins.

The company, which operates Anthropologie, Free People, BHLDN and Terrain stores apart from its namesake chain, saw a fourth-quarter profit of $39.3 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with $75.2 million, or 45 cents a share, last year.

Sales rose 9 percent to $730.6 million.

Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of 29 cents a share, on revenue of $740.0 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Urban Outfitters shares closed at $29.51 on Monday on the Nasdaq.