Shares of Anaheim retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. had their best day in a while on Friday as Wall Street looked past a big profit drop and put faith in the company’s turnaround efforts.
Pacific Sunwear, which runs mall stores selling surf-inspired and hip hop clothes, is taking “the right steps” to fix slowing sales and its struggling demo hip hop chain, according to Banc of America Securities analyst Amy W. Noblin.
The comments helped drive up Pacific Sunwear’s more than 7% before Friday’s close. The company has a market value of $1.4 billion.
Pacific Sunwear’s shares are off about 14% since January.
The rise came a day after Pacific Sunwear reported a big drop in profit for the quarter ended Feb. 3.
Net income for the quarter was $9.1 million compared with $47 million a year earlier. The latest figure includes a charge of $16.6 million related to its closure of 74 demo stores.
Excluding those charges, profit came in at $25.7 million.
Sales rose 8% in the quarter to $458.2 million.
