“During the period, we maintained our sharp focus on driving towards our long-term goal of zero net debt,” said Ken Hannah, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “During the course of the past five quarters, we have utilized our strong cash generation to lower our overall indebtedness – creating significant long-term value for equity holders in the process. As we progress through 2021, we will continue to prioritize debt reduction in our capital allocation strategy, while simultaneously lowering interest expense levels still further on the debt that remains.”
Fiscal Full Year 2021 Outlook
“Looking ahead, we remain cautious about the macro environment given the uncertainty surrounding new COVID-19 variants and ongoing challenges in the global supply chain,” said Sullivan. “To that end, we are taking actions to minimize these disruptions and believe we are well-equipped to partially offset some of these cost headwinds. Even with these uncertainties, I remain highly confident in the team’s ability to build upon our recent strong performance at Famous and improving results in the Brand Portfolio, leverage our diversified brand model and continue to execute on our long-term strategic priorities in the year’s back half. We strongly believe in our prospects for delivering record annual adjusted earnings per share for fiscal year 2021 and are enthusiastic about our strategy for ongoing value creation and for the long-term opportunities that lie ahead for Caleres.”
For the third quarter we expect adjusted earnings per share of between $1.10 and $1.25 and for fiscal full year 2021, Caleres expects adjusted earnings per share to be between $3.25 and $3.50.
Investor Conference Call
Caleres will host an investor conference call at 5:00 p.m. ET today, Tuesday, August 31. The webcast and associated slides will be available at investor.caleres.com/news/events. A live conference call will be available at (877) 217-9089 for analysts in North America or (706) 679-1723 for international analysts by using the conference ID 8448125. A replay will be available at investor.caleres.com/news/events/archive for a limited period. Investors may also access the replay by dialing (855) 859-2056 in North America or (404) 537-3406 internationally and using the conference ID 8448125 through Tuesday, September 14.
Definitions
All references in this press release, outside of the condensed consolidated financial statements that follow, unless otherwise noted, related to net earnings (loss) attributable to Caleres, Inc. and diluted earnings (loss) per common share attributable to Caleres, Inc. shareholders, are presented as net earnings (loss) and earnings (loss) per diluted share, respectively.