U.S. stocks were in positive territory on Thursday on the back of a positive gross domestic product report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.36% to 25,717, the S&P 500 index rose 0.36% to 2,815 and the Nasdaq Composite Index swelled 0.34% to 7,669.
Shares of Five Below Inc. (FIVE, Financial) climbed more than 8% on Thursday after the company announced fourth-quarter results. Revenue grew 19.4% from the prior-year quarter to $602.7 million, beating expectations by $1.17 million. Earnings of $1.58 per share were in line with estimates.
In a statement, President and CEO Joel Anderson said Five Below's strong quarterly performance "capped off a great year."
“Our 2018 store openings are on track to be another record class with first-year average unit volumes expected to be over $2 million," he said. "For the year, we delivered comparable sales growth of 3.9% on top of last year’s record results.”
During the quarter, comparable sales rose 4.4% and the operating income increased 12.6% to $116.5 million.
Looking ahead to first-quarter 2019, the company expects net sales between $361 million and $366 million and a 3% to 4% increase in comparable sales. It projects net income will range from $18 million to $19.7 million and earnings to be between 32 cents and 35 cents per share.
Gainers
- PVH Corp. (PVH, Financial)
- Pioneer Natural Resources Co. (PXD, Financial)
- Ralph Lauren Corp. (RL, Financial)
- HanesBrands Inc. (HBI, Financial)
Losers
- Lennar Corp. (LEN, Financial)
- Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ, Financial)
- PPL Corp. (PPL, Financial)
- D.R. Horton Inc. (DHI, Financial)
- L Brands Inc. (LB, Financial)
Global markets
The main European stock markets were mixed. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 advanced 0.56%, France's CAC 40 slid 0.09%, Germany's Dax rose 0.08% and Spain's IBEX 35 dipped 0.60%.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 fell 1.61%, India’s BSE Sensex rose 1.08%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng swelled 0.16% and China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.92%.
Disclosure: The author holds no positions in any stocks mentioned.
