Pier 1 Q3 Results Miss Street View, CEO Steps Down; Shares Plunge 12%

(RTTNews) - Shares of Pier 1 Imports Inc. (PIR) plunged 12% in extended trading session on Wednesday after the company's results for the third quarter fell short of Wall Street estimates. The home furnishing retailer said its Chief Executive Officer Alasdair James has stepped down and the company is looking at alternative options to turn around its business.

Fort Worth, Texas-based Pier 1 Imports reported third-quarter loss of $50.44 million or $0.62 per share compared with last year's profit of $7.4 million or $0.09 per share last year. Analysts estimated a loss of $0.02 per share for the quarter. Analysts estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Sales for the quarter dropped 11.9% to $413.2 million from $469.2 million last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $451.98 million for the quarter.

The company's comparable sales for the three-month period decreased 10.5% compared to last year. The company operated 987 stores at the end of the third quarter, a decrease of 24 from last year.

The company said it is taking proactive steps to improve profitability and cash flow. Pier 1 Imports has reduced its planned capital expenditures for fiscal 2019 from $60 million to $40 million, and is implementing a more rigorous cost reduction program that is expected to generate annualized expense savings beginning in fiscal 2020.

Separately, Pier 1 announced that its CEO Alasdair James has stepped down and Cheryl Bachelder, a member of the Company's Board of Directors, has been appointed as Interim CEO, effective immediately.

The company said its Board has initiated a process to evaluate a full range of strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value and has retained Credit Suisse to assist in this effort.

"Clearly the 'New Day' strategic plan did not deliver the desired results fast enough. We will need to promptly narrow our strategic focus and hone our execution in a way that reinvigorates our top-line sales with a distinctive Pier 1 style and value proposition for our customers, while re-engineering our cost structure for sustainable profitability. I look forward to outlining a new action plan in short order," Bachelder said.

PIR closed Wednesday's trading at $1.11, up $0.10 or 9.90%, on the NYSE. The stock, however, slipped $0.13 or 12.16% in the after-hours trading.