Donna Karan Says 2001 Results to Fall Below Expectations

High-fashion house Donna Karan (DK Quote) posted third-quarter earnings Tuesday that met analysts' estimates, but said it expects 2001 earnings to fall below expectations.

The New York company earned $14 million, or 63 cents a share, compared with $10.1 million, or 46 cents a share,in the year-ago period. According to a First Call/Thomson Financial poll, the consensus estimate by four analysts was 63 cents a share.

Quarterly revenue was $203.7 million compared with $197.5 million in 1999. Sales grew 12.2% in the third quarter due to new store openings, but fell 10.2% on a comparable store basis.

Donna Karan also maintained it was comfortable with the four-analyst earnings estimate of 66 cents a share for fiscal 2000, and said it expects earnings of 78 cents to 82 cents a share in fiscal 2001. This falls below analysts' expectations of 95 cents a share.

For 2001, the company expects revenues of between $720 million and $760 million.