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Urban Outfitters’ clothing will be out of style for at least a season or two — and so will the company’s shares.
The retailer’s stock plunged nearly 17 percent yesterday after it blamed disappointing fourth-quarter earnings on flopped fashions at its namesake chain and Anthropologie stores. Shares fell $6.33 to $31.66.
The results marked the second straight lackluster quarter for the Philadelphia-based retailer, rare stumbles for what many industry insiders view as among the best-run operations of the past decade.
“I could see it turning as soon as three months from now,” Chief Executive Glen Senk said on a conference call in response to questions about when Urban Outfitters might get back its mojo with the nation’s mall rats.
Still, Senk admitted the slump could persist as the once small and nimble firm struggles to turn around its ship, which now spans 372 stores worldwide.
“Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie alone probably have 150 to 175 people who touch the product in one way or another,” Senk said.
“As they get information, they use that information to make better decisions going forward, but it is a process that you can’t rush.”
Some fashion observers fret that a multiyear craze for skinny pants is losing steam without a clear trend to pick up the slack.
An even bigger problem for Urban Outfitters may be its recent hodge-podge of clothing in drab colors that is “without a clear point of view,” said analyst Jennifer Black. That’s worrisome for investors as competition from other trendsetters intensifies.
“It used to be you’d walk into Urban Outfitters and it was all about the dress or it was all about military,” Black said. “Now I don’t know what it stands for. I just see a lot of stuff that’s unflattering.”
Shifting apparel trends left the retailer saddled with excess inventory, forcing it to take steep markdowns on holiday fashions that sapped fourth-quarter gross margins, sending them 2.1 percentage points lower.
Profit was $75.2 million, or 45 cents a share, down from $77.7 million, or 45 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 14 percent to $668.4 million. Analysts had expected earnings of 52 cents a share on $674.8 million in revenue. james.covert@nypost.com