Orange County’s two major mall retailers, Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and Foothill Ranch’s Wet Seal Inc., reported disappointing January sales at stores open at least a year but upped their profit outlooks for the three months through January.
Pacific Sunwear, which sells clothes inspired by surfing and is closing a chain selling urban, hip hop styles, said January same-store sales fell 7.4%.
Total sales for the four weeks ended Feb. 2 were down 3.7% to $66.3 million.
Analysts had expected a same-store sales rise of 1.2%.
For the recently ended quarter, Pacific Sunwear said it expects a profit after onetime charges of $20.5 million to $22.6 million.
Wall Street had been expecting $20.5 million.
The company’s forecast excludes costs related to shutting down its demo and One Thousand Steps shoe stores, as well as an Anaheim distribution center.
Pacific Sunwear runs 954 PacSun surfwear shops. It has 153 demo stores, which started selling off clothes on Sunday in preparation for closure.
The company closed its small One Thousand Steps chain in January.
Pacific Sunwear has a market value of about $800 million.
Wet Seal, which runs stores selling clothes for teen girls and young women, said same-store sales for January fell 5.7%.
Total sales for January fell 16% to $36.8 million.
Analysts had expected a 1.5% decline.
The company’s Arden B chain for young women drove the decline, according to Wet Seal.
One analyst speculated the company could look to sell off the chain and focus on its Wet Seal stores for teen girls.
Wet Seal upped its profit target for recently ended quarter on lower operating costs.
The company forecasts a profit of $8.5 million to $9.42 million.
Wall Street had been expecting $6.6 million.
Wet Seal has a market value of about $275 million. It runs 399 Wet Seal stores and 95 Arden B stores.
