Foothill Ranch-based mall retailer Wet Seal reversed four months of falling sales with a gain in August that topped Wall Street expectations.
Wet Seal’s sales at stores open at least a year rose 1.1% last month from a year earlier.
Analysts were looking for a 3.5% drop in same-store sales.
Total sales were $52.6 million, up 4.2% from a year earlier.
The company runs 511 clothing stores, made up of 435 Wet Seal stores for teen girls and 76 Arden B. stores for young women.
A new mix of clothes at Wet Seal and back-to-school shopping drove the gain. The chain saw a 1.5% rise in same-store sales. Arden B. saw a 1.8% drop.
Wet Seal has been battling a retail market that’s slow to recover from the downturn and the ever changing tastes of its fickle target shoppers.
The company and others have had to resort to price cuts to draw in buyers.
Wet Seal continues to face “a very challenging and promotional retail environment,” Chief Executive Ed Thomas said.
The company is undergoing a hot and cold turnaround in which it has cut costs, remodeled stores and switched out styles faster.
The August same-store sales gain is the first for the company since March and February. Profits on clothes improved in August, according to Thomas.
