By Sabela Ojea

Leslie's swung to a loss in its fiscal fourth quarter and warned about wider losses in the current quarter as it continues to deal with a challenging environment across the pool industry.

The pool and spa supply retailer on Monday posted a loss for the three months ended Sept. 28 of $9.92 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with a profit of $16.5 million, or 9 cents a share, for the same period a year earlier. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected earnings of 10 cents.

Stripping out one-time items, earnings per share came in at 2 cents. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast adjusted earnings of 11 cents.

Sales fell 8% to $397.9 million, missing the $405.2 million expected by Wall Street, according to FactSet.

Overall, Leslie's saw strong performance in its pro business segment, but continue to be hit by some softness in store traffic and larger-ticket and discretionary categories, Chief Executive Jason McDonell said.

For the first quarter, the company forecasts a loss of $39 million to $41 million, an adjusted loss per share of 20 cents to 21 cents, and sales of $169 million to $176 million. Wall Street expects a quarterly loss of $39.4 million, an adjusted loss per share of 19 cents, and sales of $178.7 million.

Write to Sabela Ojea at sabela.ojea@wsj.com; @sabelaojeaguix

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2024 16:28 ET (21:28 GMT)

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