Wet Seal Now Expects Wider Loss In Q3 - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - The Wet Seal Inc. (WTSL), a specialty retailer to young women, reported that it is revising financial guidance for the third quarter of fiscal 2013. The company now expects to report a comparable store sales increase in the low-single digits and a net loss per share in the range of $0.10 to $0.12, before non-cash asset impairments.

The company's prior guidance was a comparable store sales increase in the mid-single digits and net loss per share in the range of $0.02 to $0.03, before non-cash asset impairments.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report a loss per share of $0.02 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

John Goodman, CEO of Wet Seal, said, "Following our strong start to the quarter, mall traffic softened considerably during September and has continued into October, resulting in an increasingly promotional competitive environment in recent weeks. We expect to deliver improvement in most key financial metrics versus the year ago period, but the need to implement more extensive promotions than planned has caused us to lower our margin and earnings expectations for the quarter."