Wet Seal Inc.’s downsizing could be paying off.
The Foothill Ranch-based teen retailer said Thursday that sales at its continuing stores rose 16.4% in February. That’s a reverse from a year earlier, when Wet Seal’s same-store sales fell 12.4% in February.
Shares of Wet Seal were up 6.1% to $3.30 at close of trading Thursday.
The company closed 95 Wet Seal stores during the four-week period through Feb. 26. The closures are part of the company’s plan to shutter 150 stores. The company operated 463 Wet Seal stores and 96 Arden B. stores before the closures.
Wet Seal had about 5,000 workers, but said 2,000 employees would be cut in the store liquidations.
Meanwhile, the company faces an informal Securities and Exchange inquiry into its second-quarter results from 2004.
Regulators have requested documents related to the 2004 sale of Wet Seal stock by Canadian lingerie retailer La Senza Corp.
Montreal-based La Senza’s chairman and chief executive, Irv Teitelbaum, stepped down as Wet Seal’s longtime chairman in August to focus on expanding La Senza.
La Senza said in July it planned to sell its 3.1 million share stake in Wet Seal.
The probe is focusing on the timing of the stock sale and news out of Wet Seal in early August.
