By Adriano Marchese

Citi Trends shares rose in premarket trading Tuesday after the company reported strong first-quarter sales driven by more customer visits and higher spend per visit, a momentum it says is continuing into the current quarter.

Shares traded 11% higher ahead of the morning bell at $49.96.

The value retailer of apparel, accessories and home goods reported a 14.4% rise in total sales, reaching $230.9 million in the first quarter. Comparable sales were up 13.9%.

Chief Executive Ken Seipel said the quarter's growth was driven by increased customer traffic and larger basket size, which he said was thanks to improved assortment, better trending products and its value proposition.

Net income in the period rose to $7.75 million, from $871,000 a year earlier, which on a per-share basis was 91 cents compared with 11 cents.

The trend appears to be continuing in the second quarter. "We are also encouraged by the momentum we are seeing early in the second quarter, with quarter-to-date comparable store sales growth trending in the high-single digits, upper teens on a two-year basis," Seipel said.

For the full year, Citi Trends expects comparable store sales to increase 8% to 10%, with total sales growing at a pace of between 9% to 11%.

Citi Trends plans to open about 25 new stores and remodel about 50 existing ones.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 02, 2026 09:36 ET (13:36 GMT)

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