The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE:BKE) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The Buckle, Inc. (NYSE:BKE) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript August 22, 2025

The Buckle, Inc. beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.89, expectations were $0.867.

Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Buckle’s Second Quarter Earnings Release Webcast. [Operator Instructions] Members of Buckle’s management on the call today are Dennis Nelson, President and CEO; Tom Heacock, Senior Vice President of Finance, Treasurer and CFO; Adam Akerson, Vice President of Finance and Corporate Controller; and Brady Fritz, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Before beginning, the company would like to reiterate its policy of not providing future sales or earnings guidance. All forward-looking statements made on the call are pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties described in the company’s SEC filings.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise these statements, except as required by law. Additionally, the company does not authorize the reproduction or dissemination of transcripts or audio recordings of the company’s quarterly conference calls without its expressed written consent. Any unauthorized reproductions or recordings of the call should not be relied upon as the information may be inaccurate. As a reminder, today’s webcast is being recorded. And I’d now like to turn the conference over to your host, Tom Heacock.

Thomas B. Heacock: Good morning, and thanks for joining us this morning. Our August 22, 2025, press release reported that net income for the 13-week second quarter ended August 2, 2025, was $45 million or $0.89 per share on a diluted basis, which compares to net income of $39.3 million or $0.78 per share on a diluted basis for the prior year 13-week second quarter, which ended August 3, 2024. Year-to-date net income for the 26-week period ended August 2, 2025, was $80.2 million or $1.59 per share on a diluted basis, which compares net income of $74.1 million or $1.48 per share on a diluted basis for the prior year 26-week period ended August 3, 2024. Net sales for the 13-week second quarter increased 8.3% to $305.7 million compared to net sales of $282.4 million for the prior year 13-week second quarter.

Comparable store sales for the quarter increased 7.3% in comparison to the same 13-week period in the prior year, and online sales increased 17.7% to $43.6 million. Year-to-date, net sales increased 6.1% to $577.9 million compared to net sales of $544.9 million for the prior year 26-week fiscal period. Comparable store sales for the year-to-date period increased 5.2% in comparison to the same 26- week period in the prior year, and our online sales increased 10.5% to $90 million. For the quarter, UPTs decreased approximately 1.5%, the average unit retail increased approximately 3% and the average transaction value increased about 1.5%. Year-to-date, UPTs decreased approximately 1%, the average unit retail increased approximately 2% and the average transaction value increased approximately 1.5%.

Gross margin for the quarter was 47.4% a 50 basis point increase from 46.9% in the second quarter of 2024. The current quarter margin expansion was the result of a 10 basis point increase in merchandise margin, along with 40 basis points of leverage buying distribution and occupancy expenses. Year-to-date gross margin was 47.1%, up 60 basis points from 46.5% for the same period in the prior year, and the year-to-date increase was the result of a 30 basis point increase in merchandise margin, along with 30 basis points of leverage buying distribution and occupancy expenses. Selling, general and administrative expenses for the quarter were 29% of sales compared to 29.8% for the second quarter of 2024, and year-to-date SG&A was 29.8% of sales compared to 29.9% for the same period in the prior year.

The second quarter decrease was due to a 65 basis point reduction related to nonrecurring digital commerce investments made a year ago, a 45 basis point decrease in store labor-related expenses and a 55 basis point decrease in other SG&A expense categories. And these increases were partially offset by an 85 basis point increase in incentive compensation accruals. Our operating margin for the quarter was 18.4% compared to 17.1% for the second quarter of fiscal 2024. And for the year-to-date period, our operating margin was 17.3% compared to 16.6% for the same period last year. Income tax expense as a percentage of pretax net income for both the current and prior year fiscal quarter was 24.5%, bringing second quarter net income to $45 million for fiscal 2025 compared to $39.3 million for fiscal 2024.

Income tax expense as a percentage of pretax net income for both the current and prior year year-to-date periods was also 24.5%, bringing year-to-date net income to $80.2 million for fiscal 2025 compared to $74.1 million for fiscal 2024. Our press release also included a balance sheet as of August 2, 2025, which included the following: inventory of $142.5 million, which was up 8.4% from the same time a year ago and $349.6 million of total cash and investments. We ended the quarter with $158.8 million in fixed assets, net of accumulated depreciation. Our capital expenditures for the quarter were $12 million and depreciation expense was $6.1 million. For the year-to-date period, capital expenditures were $23.4 million and depreciation expense was $12 million.

Year-to-date capital spending is broken down as follows: $20.2 million for new store construction, store remodels and technology upgrades and $3.2 million for capital spending at the corporate headquarters and distribution center. During the quarter, we opened 2 new stores, completed 4 full store remodels, one of which was a relocation into a new outdoor shopping center and closed 1 store, which brings our year-to-date counts to 2 new stores, 9 full remodels and 3 store closures. For the remainder of the year, we now anticipate opening 4 additional new stores and completing 12 more full remodeling projects. Buckle ended the quarter with 440 retail stores in 42 states, which is consistent with the store count as of a year ago. And now I’ll turn it over to Adam Akerson, Vice President of Finance.

Adam J. Akerson: Thanks, Tom, and good morning. Our women’s business growth accelerated from the prior quarter with merchandise sales increasing about 18.5% against the prior year, representing approximately 47.5% of sales, which compares to 43.5% last year. Growth in the women’s business continues to be anchored in the performance of our denim category. For the quarter, women’s denim increased approximately 20.5% with average denim price points increasing from $80.60 in the second quarter of fiscal 2024 to $85.35 in the second quarter of fiscal 2025. This AUR increase continues to be the result of strong growth in our Buckle Black Label, which has outperformed the total denim business, along with strong growth of other higher price point national brands.

Through the second quarter, there have been minimal AUR impacts as a result of tariffs. Complementing our strong women’s denim selection, our merchandising team continued to evolve our strategy of customer-centric buying, sharpening their focus on key styles, brands and trends, which has resulted in strong guest response. This strategy delivered double-digit growth in every category with the exception of shorts, which still saw nice growth for the quarter. In total, average women’s price points increased about 5% from $43.15 to $45.35. On the men’s side, we were pleased to see the business return to growth for the quarter with merchandise sales up about 1.5% against the prior year, representing approximately 52.5% of total sales, which compares to 56.5% in the prior year.

This growth was led by our men’s denim category, which was up about 4.5% for the quarter. Average denim price points increased from $89.20 in the second quarter of fiscal 2024 to $89.30 in the second quarter of fiscal 2025. In other categories, we saw strong performance in our short sleeve wovens, polos, denim shorts, hats and fragrance selections. For the quarter, overall average men’s price points increased approximately 2% from $50.20 to $51.20. On a combined basis, accessory sales for the quarter increased approximately 9.5% against the prior year, while footwear sales were down about 0.5%. These 2 categories accounted for approximately 11.5% and 5%, respectively, of the second quarter net sales, which compares to 11.5% and 5.5% for each in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.

For the quarter, average accessory price points were up approximately 3% and average footwear price points were up about 8%. Also on a combined basis, our kids business had an outstanding summer and start to the back-to-the-school season, increasing approximately 23% year-over-year. We are excited to see the increased awareness and continued growth for our kids selection, which grew to approximately 4.5% of our total business for the quarter. For the quarter, denim accounted for approximately 36% of sales and tops accounted for approximately 29.5%, which compares to 35.5% and 30% for each in the second quarter of fiscal 2024. And for the 10th consecutive quarter, private label continued to grow as an overall percentage of our mix. For the quarter, private label represented 43.5% of sales versus 43% in the second quarter of 2024.

And with that, we welcome your questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Mauricio.

Q&A Session

Mauricio Serna Vega: I guess just on the merchandise margin expansion. Can you elaborate a little bit more on the drivers behind it? It seems I think relative to the prior quarter, it decelerated. So just wondering there if there’s like any impact that you’re seeing from tariffs already in your margins.

Thomas B. Heacock: Mauricio, thanks for the question. This is Tom. I’ll take the first part and then let Dennis talk a little bit more about kind of vendors and how we’re dealing with tariffs. But I mean, any time you look at the first quarter, second quarter a year ago and the comparisons were up against any time you can grow merchandise margins off of record levels, we’re certainly pleased with that. The team did a really nice job of maintaining really strong full regular price selling. And so again, pleased to be able to grow that even if not at the same rate in Q2 as it was in Q1. I think the biggest driver of why we didn’t see that same growth rate in Q2 compared to Q1 is really probably tied to private label. Private label as — I mean, a percentage of the mix was down in Q2 compared to Q1, which is kind of the natural cycle.

And then looking at the year-over-year growth and the percentage of the mix that’s private label slowed a little bit as well just with the strong selling of some of our nationally branded products. So I’ll let Dennis talk about tariffs.

Dennis H. Nelson: On the tariffs, we continue to see kind of the same as earlier, at least as of today, where we’re seeing low to mid-single digits on average on cost increase. We have several vendors. We have such a wide range of vendors, but several, we’re not seeing any increase. We have starting to see with select brands a few higher single-digit increase on cost. But probably the average overall is in the low to mid-single-digit cost increase that we’re seeing going forward.

Mauricio Serna Vega: Got it. Very helpful. Just one, if I could elaborate on the other part of the gross margin where you had 40 basis points of leverage on buying occupancy and distribution. Just wondering like I would have maybe thought that there would have been like a higher leverage just given the — how strong the comps were in the quarter. Any particular line item within buying occupancy or distribution where maybe there’s been a little bit of more expense happening that maybe didn’t let that leverage flow through?

Thomas B. Heacock: Thank you, Mauricio. Really, the driver there is occupancy expense. And so we saw the growth in occupancy expense tick up in Q2 compared to Q1. So Q2 increased about 5.5% for occupancy expense compared to about 3.5% in Q1. And really, that’s related to the store projects we’re doing, the new store openings, the remodels where we’re moving out of a lot of malls and into better locations off mall. So that’s driven base rent up. And then with the strong sales performance in Q2, we also saw an uptick in percentage rent with several of our stores.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] There are no further questions in queue. Okay. It looks like we have another question from Mauricio.

Mauricio Serna Vega: Great. I guess just a quick follow-up on the SG&A when you were breaking down the components of the change as a percentage of sales. I just wanted to make sure the 65% basis points from nonrecurring digital investments. Is this just like a — so it’s lapping from last year, I suppose. Is this just happening on the second quarter? Or just as a reminder, could that be like maybe like another quarter that we’re also lapping that in Q3 or something like that?

Thomas B. Heacock: That does flow into the third quarter as well. So we talked a lot about our focus on digital, focus on growing e-com a year ago. And so brought in consultants and third parties and really put a lot of effort around improving the buckle.com experience, and that started late in Q1, but really picked up in Q2 and into Q3. So we’ll continue to see some benefit there in Q3 as well.

Operator: Okay. There are no further questions. I will now turn the call back over to Buckle for any closing remarks.

Thomas B. Heacock: There are no questions — further questions, we’ll wrap it up quick today, and thanks, everyone, for your participation today, and have a great day, and enjoy your weekend.