By Katherine Hamilton

VF Corp. shares fell after the company's fourth-quarter revenue was dragged down by diminishing sales of its Vans shoes.

The stock slid 11% to $12.87 after VF reported earnings Wednesday morning. Shares have lost about 40% of their value this year.

The apparel and footwear company recorded the most weakness in its Vans brand, which is worrying investors, analysts said. Increasing sales of new Vans products were more than offset by declines in the brand's iconic items, Jefferies analysts led by Ashley Helgans said.

"Vans improvement remains crucial for investor sentiment and total [company revenue] turnaround," Helgans said in a research note.

VF logged a nearly 5% decrease in revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter, but said sales would have been up 4% if Vans sales were excluded, as its other brands Timberland and The North Face had a better quarter.

Vans sales were down 22% in the fourth quarter. The decline was driven by both intentional business optimization, as well as slower direct-to-consumer traffic, Chief Executive Bracken Darrell said during an analyst call.

More than half of the sales downturn was a direct result of deliberately reduced revenue to eliminate unprofitable business, Darrell said. VF reduced Vans storefronts and channel inventory in China because the brand's turnaround in the Asia-Pacific region has been slower, he said.

Direct-to-consumer traffic is also softer, and VF is ramping up its marketing to try to address this. Vans sales would still be down in the high-single digits compared with the prior year if the deliberate strategic actions were excluded, Darrell said.

"In terms of consumer demand, we're still not getting enough traffic into our stores and our websites," he said.

Meanwhile, The North Face brand revenue was up 2% and Timberland sales increased 10%.

Darrell expects most of the impact on Vans sales from strategic optimization to fade by the end of fiscal 2026. VF guided for revenue to fall 3% to 5% in the current first quarter, with Vans sales performing similarly to the fourth quarter's numbers.

Write to Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 21, 2025 11:05 ET (15:05 GMT)

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