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By Jeannette Neumann
(Bloomberg) -- VF Corp. shares soared after the the apparel and shoe company reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, signaling that turnaround efforts are beginning to show results.
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The company reported revenue of $1.8 billion, better than the $1.7 billion forecast by a Bloomberg survey of analysts. An adjusted loss of 24 cents was narrower than expectations.
VF Corp. said it expects a second-quarter revenue decline between 2% and 4% year-over-year. The company isn’t providing detailed full-year guidance as it works on a reset. It said adjusted operating income and operating cash flow will be up this year versus last.
The owner of the North Face brand is in the midst of a revamp led by Chief Executive Officer Bracken Darrell, who took the helm about two years ago. He’s focused on improving its Vans brand, where sales have been falling.
“We have reset the table and soon will move to growth,” Darrell said in a statement.
The company is closing poorly performing Vans stores and trying to pull back on discounting of the brand. Revenue at Vans fell 14% in the most recent quarter versus last year. That’s an improvement from the prior quarter.
The company said in a presentation that sales of new Vans items, including Super Lowpro and Curren Caples Skate, are increasing. Those gains are offset by sharp declines in its “icons” products, though.
VF Corp. shares rose 14% at 7:05 a.m. in Wednesday premarket trading in New York. The stock had fallen 42% for the year through Tuesday’s close.
(Updates with additional context in the third and seventh paragraphs. A previous version corrected the day of the premarket move.)
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