Victoria's Secret crushed earnings estimates this morning.
Guidance can optimistically be interpreted as forecasting a 3X improvement in earnings this year.
Victoria's Secret (NYSE: VSXY) stock soared 43.2% through 11:55 a.m. ET Tuesday after beating on sales and crushing earnings estimates this morning -- proving that artificial intelligence stocks aren't the only ones that go up!
Heading into the company's Q1 2026 report, analysts expected the lingerie company to earn $0.32 per share on $1.52 billion in sales. In fact, Victoria's Secret earned $0.60 per share -- nearly twice what was expected -- on sales of $1.56 billion.
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Q1 sales jumped 15% year over year, and same-store sales grew 13%, in what CEO Hillary Super called "a very strong start to 2026." Sales grew in the double digits across the company's Victoria's Secret, PINK, and Beauty brands.
Earnings calculated under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) weren't quite as good as the non-GAAP number noted above. Still, with $0.56 per share in GAAP profits, Victoria's Secret totally reversed last year's Q1 loss of $0.02 per share, and profits are now headed in the right direction.
Turning to guidance, Victoria's Secret anticipates Q2 sales continuing to climb to just over $1.6 billion or so -- nearly 10% year-over-year growth -- with operating and net profits growing even more strongly.
For the full year, management says sales could approach $7.1 billion, above previous guidance. Management did not provide precise earnings-per-share guidance for the year, saying only that "adjusted operating income" might range from $550 million to $580 million. On roughly 84.8 million shares outstanding, that works out to perhaps $6.66 per share.
Admittedly, this is a non-GAAP number. Admittedly, it's a pre-tax number, too. It still sounds a whole lot better than the $1.93 per share GAAP that Victoria's Secret earned last year!
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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Victoria's Secret & Co. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.