L Brands Surges After Victoria's Secret Parent Posts First-Quarter Profit

The parent of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works posts first-quarter earnings that surprises Wall Street and lifts the low end of its earnings guidance for the fiscal year.

Author:: Joseph Woelfel
Publish date:: May 23, 2019 9:35 AM EDT

Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty

L Brands (LB) - Get Report jumped in trading Thursday after the parent company of Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works posted first-quarter earnings that surprised Wall Street and lifted the low end of its earnings guidance for the fiscal year.

Earnings in the quarter were 14 cents a share vs. a break-even result expected by analysts. Sales of $2.63 billion topped forecasts of $2.6 billion. Same-store sales at Victoria's Secret declined 5% but jumped 13% at the company's Bath & Body Works outlets.

L Brands said it expects fiscal-year earnings of between $2.30 and $2.60 a share, vs. its previous guidance of $2.20 to $2.60.

The stock rose 7% to $23 on Thursday.

L Brands bucked the trend this week of disappointing earnings from retailers such as Nordstrom (JWN) - Get Report , Kohl's (KSS) - Get Report and J.C. Penney (JCP) - Get Report .