The Buckle, Inc. (BKE) Q1 2025 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Buckle's First Quarter Earnings Release Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Members of Buckle's management on the call today are Dennis Nelson, President and CEO; and Tom Heacock, Senior Vice President of Finance, Treasurer and CFO; Adam Akerson, Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller; and Brady Fritz, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Before beginning, the company would like to reiterate its policy of not providing future sales or earnings guidance. All forward-looking statements made on the call are pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties described in the company's SEC filings. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements, except as required by law. Additionally, the company does not authorize the reproduction or dissemination of transcripts or audio recordings of the company's quarterly conference calls without its expressed written consent. Any unauthorized reproductions or recordings of the calls should not be relied upon as the information may be inaccurate. As a reminder, today's webcast is being recorded. And now I'd like to turn the conference over to your host, Tom Heacock.

Good morning, and thanks for joining us this morning. Our May 23, 2025 press release reported that net income for the 13-week first quarter ended May 3, 2025, was $35.2 million or $0.70 per share on a diluted basis compared to net income of $34.8 million or $0.69 per share on a diluted basis for the prior year 13-week first quarter, which ended May 4, 2024. Net sales for the 13-week first quarter increased 3.7% to $272.1 million compared to net sales of $262.5 million for the prior year 13-week first quarter. Comparable store sales for the quarter increased 3% in comparison to the same 13-week period in the prior year, and our online sales increased 4.5% to $46.4 million. For the quarter, UPTs increased slightly. The average unit retail increased approximately 1% and the average transaction value increased approximately 1.5%. Gross margin for the quarter was 46.7%, a 70 basis point increase from 46% in the first quarter of last year, with the current quarter margin improvement being the result of a 60 basis point increase in merchandise margins along with a 10 basis points of leverage buying, distribution and occupancy expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter were 30.7% of net sales compared to 29.8% for the first quarter of last year. And the first quarter increase was due to a 45 basis point increase in incentive compensation accruals, a 25 basis point increase in health insurance-related costs, a 20 basis point increase in equity compensation expense and a 40 basis point increase in other SG&A expense categories. These increases were partially offset by a 25 basis point decrease in e-commerce shipping expenses and a 15 basis point reduction in certain marketing expenses. Our operating margin for the quarter was 16% compared to 16.2% for the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Income tax expense as a percentage of pretax net income for both the current and prior year fiscal quarter was 24.5%, bringing first quarter net income to $35.2 million for fiscal 2025 and compared to $34.8 million for fiscal 2024. Our press release also included a balance sheet as of May 3, 2025, which included the following: inventory of $132.4 million up 1.3% from the same time a year ago and $320 million of total cash and investments. We ended the quarter with $152.1 million in fixed assets net of accumulated depreciation. Our capital expenditures for the quarter were $11.4 million and depreciation expense was $5.9 million. First quarter capital spending is broken down as follows: $10 million for new store construction, store remodels and technology upgrades and $1.4 million for capital spending at the corporate headquarters and distribution center. During the quarter, we completed 5 full store remodels, 3 of which were relocations into new outdoor shopping centers and closed 2 stores. For the remainder of the year, we anticipate opening 7 new stores, completing 16 additional full remodel projects and closing one youth store as it combines with our full-line location as a part of a remodel. Buckle ended the quarter with 439 retail stores in 42 states compared with 440 stores in 42 states at the end of the first quarter of last year. And now I'll turn the call over to Adam Akerson, Vice President of Finance.

Thanks, Tom, and good morning. Our women's business continued its strong momentum from the back half of 2024 through the first quarter of 2025 with merchandise sales increasing about 10.5% against the prior year, and representing approximately 50% of sales, which compares to 47% last year. The strong results continue to be headlined by the performance of our denim category. For the quarter, women's denim increased approximately 11% with average denim price points increasing from $80.85 in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 to $84.85 in the first quarter of fiscal 2025. This AUR increase is primarily the result of continued growth in our private -- in our Buckle Black Label, increasing its percentage of our total denim mix along with strong performance of higher price point national brands. Complementing our strong denim selection, our merchandising team did a great job delivering a balanced assortment of tops, shorts, dresses, outerwear, footwear and accessories, which all delivered growth for the quarter. For the quarter, average women's price points increased about 2% from $48 to $49.05. On the men's side, we were pleased to see sequential improvement throughout the quarter, resulting in positive year-over-year sales in fiscal April. For the quarter, men's merchandise sales were down about 2.5% against the prior year representing approximately 50% of total sales compared to 53% in the prior year. For the quarter, our men's denim category was down about 0.5% with private branded denim increasing about 1%. Average denim price points increased from $88.65 in the first quarter of fiscal 2024 to $89.70 in the first quarter of 2025. In other categories, we saw stronger performance in our tees, polos, denim shorts and fragrance selections. For the quarter, overall average men's price points increased approximately 1.5% and from $53.60 to $54.40. On a combined basis, accessory sales for the quarter increased approximately 3.5% against the prior year, while footwear sales were down about 7%. These 2 categories accounted for approximately 11% and 5.5%, respectively, of the first quarter net sales, which compares to 11% and 6% for each in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. For the quarter, average accessory price points were up approximately 1%, and average footwear price points were up about 2.5%. Also on a combined basis, our youth business continued its growth during the quarter increasing approximately 11.5% year-over-year. For the quarter, denim accounted for approximately 43.5% of sales, and tops accounted for approximately 27% which compares with 43% and 27.5% for each in the first quarter of 2024. As previously mentioned, we continued to see nice growth in our private brands across nearly every category. For the quarter, private label represented 47.5% of sales versus 46% in the first quarter of 2024. And with that, we welcome your questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Mauricio.

Great. This is Mauricio Serna from UBS Research. Just a couple of questions. Maybe could you elaborate a little bit more on how are you thinking about the China tariffs and other tariffs impact on your gross margin as we head into second quarter, upcoming quarters? Like how are you thinking about that? And then on the report, just one thing that sticked out just on the balance sheet, we see a big uptick, I think, like 10% increase or so in the operating lease assets right of use. Just wanted to understand what was like the driver behind that big increase.

Mauricio, thank you for the question. We have vendors and brands where we have had no increases in our costs as we look even forward to the second quarter as well as we've had others that have low to mid-single-digit increases. So we think we're working with our vendors, managing the tariffs and our product has worked out well. Tom, do you want to comment on the other?

And then Mauricio was your second question just on the lease liability on the balance sheet, is that what the question was? Sorry, it looks like we lost Mauricio. But yes, Mauricio, that's really just a function of new stores and remodels over the last 12 months. So every one of those at the inception of the lease would have both assets and liabilities that are recognized on the balance sheet.

Okay. There are no further questions in queue. [Operator Instructions] -- I believe Mauricio is raising his hand again, we're going to go ahead and ask him to unmute.

Great. Thanks for taking a follow-up. Maybe could you talk about in the gross margin result this quarter saw nice uptick on the -- like contribution for merchandise margin? Like what is driving that? And then on the part that is actually like the occupancy, it seems like you got a little bit of leverage. I was just curious on that too, because I think and you recall that maybe like in the first quarter, you kind of require a higher comp sales growth to kind of like leverage expense? And then just lastly, again, just following up on the tariff commentary. Like anything that you're doing on your side in terms of like relocating the production for your private label? How are you dealing with the tariff for the private label, I guess, that's like the part that was just like concerned because I recall that particular business had a huge exposure to China.

Correct. Yes. On the -- as I mentioned, we are working closely with our vendors. They are sourcing other countries as well, as well as wanting to maintain our business and a long history of working with key vendors and helping us out on holding price and working ahead as well as the first quarter, we're very excited about our ladies business. The trends have been very good, strong denim, but also all categories we're having good sell-throughs at regular price. And the men's business is still 50% of our business, and we're having good sell-throughs in all our key categories there, and we're feeling really good about the inventory. Do you want to comment on the other?

And then Mauricio, I think your second questions were about merchandise margin drivers during the quarter. And really, that's a function I mean we've seen continued growth there. But increase in private label is a big driver, and we saw an increase there again in the first quarter and then also a strong regular price selling during the quarter. So both of those were contributing factors to the 60 basis point increase. And then on the leverage that we saw, which was about 10 basis points for Q1, looking at total occupancy costs for Q1 were up about 3.5%. So with total sales better than that, we did get a little bit of leverage.

Got it. And then -- sorry, can you hear me? I don't know if I'm still like unmute or not.

We can hear you.

Perfect. So I guess just the other one on SG&A, it seems like it was elevated. Anything there that's like -- you called out you do a very good job. It's like breaking down the components. But like anything on how should we be thinking about maybe like the ability, opportunity to actually see some leverage in SG&A if we continue to see actually like the good progress in the comp sales.

Kind of walking through the drivers and we called them out in the script. But total SG&A dollars were up just a little bit over $5 million and so for the quarter, looking at store payroll was flat as a percentage of sales, which was the first quarter, that's been the case for several quarters. But even with that, total payroll dollars were -- during the quarter were up just over $2 million. So that was the biggest driver of SG&A expense. And a lot of that is, again, store labor, sales labor that's variable based on top line results. The other components that we called out were incentive comp and again, the strong performance during the quarter with pre-bonus net income being up year-over-year and then again, looking for expectation for the rest of the year for that and the accrual was up year-over-year. And then equity comp and health insurance, which health insurance were self-funded. So a little bit of that is reactive to claims that come in, and we had better performance a year ago during Q1 and then equity comp is largely a function of stock price on the date of grant for new shares.

There are no further questions in queue. [Operator Instructions] It looks like there's no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Buckle for any closing remarks.

Thank you, everybody, for participating in the call, and we hope you enjoy the rest of the day, and have a wonderful holiday weekend.