Destination Maternity Corporation (NASDAQ:DEST)

Ed Krell, Chief Executive Officer of Destination Maternity Corporation, noted, "Our strong financial results for the quarter and our strong outlook for future earnings show the significant progress we are making in improving the core profitability of our business, even in the face of an extremely difficult sales environment. We are very pleased with our earnings performance for the third quarter, as well as the continued actions we have taken to further improve our profitability and cash flow, which has enabled us to increase our full year fiscal 2009 guidance for earnings and cash flow. Our earnings for the third quarter significantly exceeded both the top end of our prior earnings guidance range and our last year third quarter earnings, as a result of our strong merchandise gross margin performance and continued tight management of expenses.

Looking forward, we feel very good about our product lines and the actions we are taking to continue to improve our profitability, both in the near term and the long term.  Given the continued very weak economic environment and the uncertainty as to the timing of an economic recovery, we are planning our sales even more conservatively than we did in April 2009 when we gave our previous financial guidance for fiscal 2009. But as part of our continued tight management of expenses and keen focus on improving profitability, we have realized additional expense reductions and will seek to achieve further expense reductions where feasible without harming sales. In addition, with our continued tight management of inventory and our continued efforts to reduce product cost, we project our gross margin will be higher than we previously planned. Thus, despite a reduction in our sales guidance for the year, our earnings per share guidance of between $1.15 and $1.30 per share for the full year fiscal 2009, excluding goodwill impairment charges, is significantly higher than the $0.80 to $1.10 earnings per share guidance we provided in April 2009, as a result of our stronger planned gross margin and lower planned expenses.

Source: See Release, July 29, 2009

^a The above forecasts reflect the Company's current and preliminary views and are therefore subject to change. Please refer to the Company's Safe Harbor Statement (usually in press releases) for the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement.

^b Non-GAAP EPS figures generally exclude certain non-operating gains and losses as well as certain non-cash items. Non-GAAP information should not be viewed in isolation or as a substitute for reported, or GAAP information . For a more complete explanation of the company's definition of non-GAAP please refer to its financial press releases. The GeoTeam® non-GAAP figures may, from time to time, differ from company supplied figures.

'Looking forward, we feel very good about our product lines and we are cautiously optimistic about our future sales trend. Although in recent months we have seen relatively stronger sales than most retailers, with the increasingly weak current and projected overall economic environment, we are planning our sales more conservatively than we did in November 2008 when we gave our previous financial guidance for fiscal 2009. But with our continued tight management of expenses, we are implementing additional expense reductions such that our earnings per share guidance for the full year fiscal 2009, excluding goodwill impairment charges, remains the same as the guidance we provided in November 2008.

Source: PR Newswire (January 27, 2009)

Guidance Report:

2009 Full Year Guidance

EPS Figures exclude one time gains and charges.

Source: PR Newswire (January 27, 2009)