Aeropostale says it may close 50 to 75 more stores this year; shares slump after market

Aeropostale Inc. on Thursday said it took a narrower loss in the fourth quarter, although it turned its first adjusted operating profit in its last eight quarters.

But the teen retailer said it may close dozens of stores in the new fiscal year. Its shares fell in late trading.

Aeropostale lost $13.5 million, or 17 cents per share, on revenue of $593.8 million. Excluding one-time costs, Aeropostale earned 1 cent per share.

Analysts expected a loss of 3 cents per share on $594.6 million in revenue, according to Zacks Investment Research.

A year earlier the company posted a loss of $70.3 million, or 90 cents per share, on sales of $670 million.

Aeropostale and other teen retailers have struggled with changing fashion tastes among teens, a decline in shoppers in malls, and competition from fast-fashion retailers like Forever 21 and H&M. During the quarter, sales in stores open at least a year — a key metric of a retailer's health — declined 9 percent. The figure also includes e-commerce sales.

The New York company said it closed more than 180 stores over the three months that ended Jan. 31. It currently has about 850 stores in North America and another 239 licensed Aeropostale stores worldwide.

It is considering closing 50 to 75 additional Aeropostale stores and one P.S. from Aeropostale location in fiscal 2015. The company may open one Aeropostale stores this fiscal year.

For the year, the company took a loss of $206.5 million, or $2.62 per share, and its revenue totaled $1.84 billion.

Aeropostale stock dropped 6.8 percent to $3.70 on Thursday. A year ago, they were trading at $7.25. The shares lost 30 cents, or 8.1 percent, to $3.40 in aftermarket trading.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ARO at http://www.zacks.com/ap/ARO

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Keywords: Aeropostale, Earnings Report