Under Armour Flying High With Stephen Curry Sneakers
BALTIMORE (AP) — Under Armour continues to reap the benefits of its relationship with NBA player Stephen Curry, with strong sales of his sneaker line giving a jolt to its first quarter. The chain's quarterly results beat Wall Street's view, and it raised its full-year revenue forecast.
Shares of the Baltimore-based footwear and clothing company rose more than 7 percent in midday trading Thursday.
Revenue totaled $1.05 billion in the quarter, topping the $1.04 billion that analysts polled by Zacks Investment Research predicted.
Footwear sales surged 64.2 percent. Under Armour Inc. said that the Curry sneaker line continues to be a success, and that its expanded running footwear is also doing well.
Under Armour began selling Curry basketball sneakers last year. The company expanded its deal with Curry, who plays for the Golden State Warriors, through 2024 late last year.
Accessories sales climbed 26.2 percent in the quarter mostly on growth in headwear and bags, while clothing sales rose 20 percent on better sales of training and golf apparel.
For the period ended March 31, Under Armour Inc. earned $19.2 million, or 4 cents per share. The company earned $11.7 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.
The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks was for earnings of 2 cents per share.
Under Armour now anticipates full-year revenue of about $5 billion, in line with the expectations of analysts surveyed by FactSet. Its prior forecast was for $4.95 billion in revenue.
Its shares rose $3.19, or 7.3 percent, to $47.14 in midday trading Thursday. Its shares are up 9.2 percent over the past year.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UA at http://www.zacks.com/ap/UA
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