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Factors Shaping Columbia Sportswear's (COLM) Q1 Earnings

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Columbia Sportswear Company’s (COLM - Free Report) top and bottom lines are likely to see a year-over-year decline, when it reports first-quarter 2020 on Apr 30. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter earnings has declined 26.8% in the past 30 days to 41 cents per share. This suggests a decline of more than 61% from the year-ago period’s reported figure. Further, the consensus mark for revenues stands at nearly $602 million, indicating a fall of 8% from the year-ago quarter’s tally.

This active lifestyle apparel, footwear and accessories provider delivered a positive earnings surprise of 0.6% in the last reported quarter. Further, its earnings have outperformed the Zacks Consensus Estimate significantly, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

Key Factors at Play

Columbia Sportswear has been witnessing high SG&A costs due to increased investments to improve global DTC operations, project-related expenses and other demand creation spending. Management is on track with such investments, which may have bumped up costs in the quarter under review. In addition, the company is not free from the effects of the coronavirus outbreak. The company’s stores across North America and Europe have been shut while the U.S. retail store operations staff have been partially furloughed through May 1. Moreover, the company has been undertaking measures to control capital expenditures among other moves to improve liquidity amid the crisis. All these are likely to have hurt its performance in the to-be-reported quarter.

Although most stores in China and Korea have opened again, majority of these are still operating at reduced hours. Also, retail traffic in these reopened stores is rising but is the well below pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, the company’s online business has largely been operational amid the crisis. Apart from these, Columbia Sportswear has been benefiting from solid investments in the direct-to-consumer or DTC business as well as its brand-enhancing initiatives. Also, its SOREL brand exhibits strength, courtesy of constant upgrades and effective strategies. Its Project CONNECT program also holds promise. These factors have most likely boosted the company’s performance in the quarter under review.

What Our Zacks Model Says

Our proven model doesn’t conclusively predict an earnings beat for Columbia Sportswear this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESPand a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. But that’s not the case here. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Although Columbia Sportswear has an Earnings ESP of +11.47%, its Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) makes surprise prediction difficult.

Stocks With Favorable Combination

Here are a few companies you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination to post an earnings beat:

Dollar General (DG - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +2.95% and a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Kroger (KR - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +8.93% and a Zacks Rank #2.

Casa Systems has an Earnings ESP of +24.73% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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