Signet Sees its Best Trading Day in Over 20 Years

Signet, which operates over 3,500 stores primarily under the name brands of Kay Jewelers, Zales, Jared The Galleria Of Jewelry, H.Samuel, Ernest Jones, Peoples, Piercing Pagoda, and JamesAllen.com, saw its shares fly on Thursday after deliving its second quarter results.

The jewelry retailer announced better than expected results and also increased its guidance for the full year.

For the second quarter, Signet saw quarterly revenue rise 1.5% yoy to $1.42 billion. Adjusted earnings were 52 cents a share. This was down from the $1.33 the company posted in the year ago quarter but was still ahead of the 20 cents that analysts had been expecting. Analysts were expecting revenue of only $1.34 billion as well.

The diamond jewelry specialist’s CEO Virginia Drosos remarked, “While it is still early in our journey, we are encouraged by our improving year-to-date performance as we execute against our Path to Brilliance transformation plan. During the second quarter, we continued to see stabilization in same store sales, and we remain confident that we have the rights strategies in place to continue to drive operational improvement over the long-term.”

The stock saw gains of over 25%. The last time shares climbed this much in one day was in April of 1996.

Signet also announced that its CFO Michele Santana is planning to leave in 2019 after a successor has been appointed.

Looking ahead, the company has raised its full-year EPS guidance to $4.05-$4.40 from $3.75-$4.25. The company also expects full-year revenue of $6.2 billion to $6.3 billion.

Previously the expectation was for $5.9 billion to $6.1 billion. Signet expects same-store sales to be flat to -1.5%. It had seen a mid-single-digit drop.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Signet Jewelers Ltd. (NYSE: SIG) and have not been compensated for this article.