American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. (NYSE:AEO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Alex Straton: Great. Thanks so much for taking my question. I know last year, you guys had mentioned this path to kind of $6 billion in sales and a low teens EBIT margin. And obviously, that’s very different from where you guys are landing this year, just given what’s happened in the last year or so. So just taking a step back, are those numbers still in play at all, or how should we think about those targets and the revenue and margin trajectory longer-term? Thanks.

Mike Mathias : Thanks, Alex. I think at some point, we’ll come back out and talk about longer-term targets. We’re obviously very focused on just navigating the current environment and our guide for includes that. I think we’ve got the firepower in the company across our brands to get to $6 billion over time. Again, we can discuss later, we’ll provide maybe more color when we think that’s possible. And then double-digit operating margin is still our goal. The guidance we just provided for this year is kind of keeping us in that mid single-digit range, call it, 6%, maybe 6% to 7%. But as Jay noted in our prepared remarks and in our — within our press release, we’re embarking on a project here this year to really unlock across our entire cost structure.

The opportunity for us to leverage that continued revenue growth in a different way than we’ve been able to in the last few years or in our history. So, more to come on that project. It’s geared towards exactly that, structural changes to our operating model that will allow us to leverage revenue in a different way and pass us towards that 10% or double-digit goal.

Alex Straton: Great. Thanks so much.

Operator: Our next question is from Marni Shapiro with Retail Tracker. Please proceed with your question.

Marni Shapiro: Hey, guys, congratulations on the great end to the year. And Jen, that jean. That jean, I — whenever I wear, I support that jean.

Jen Foyle : Marni, it’s the best. We just got a new delivery in.

Marni Shapiro: That jean. But Jay, I actually have a big picture question for you. I completely understand the caution about 2023. There are still some headwinds out there and comparing to 2022 is not — which wasn’t a normal year by any stretch. And I appreciate reviewing the costs for the company in 2023. But you did reinstate the dividend, which suggests you and the Board have a level of confidence about the business. So I’m curious, from your vantage point, what are you seeing that’s maybe not yet in the numbers that you can share with us?

Jay Schottenstein : We see like good momentum going the right way. As we said, like last month was a good month. We feel very — even though we don’t know what the future is going to look like, we are very optimistic. It was very interesting, this past week we had our international partners in. And I got a call from one of our major partners and sending me — I’ve been coming for like 10 years, and this is the best I’ve seen the line book. So we’re very optimistic. I mean, I think our — as Jen was saying, we developed a new AE 77. We get a good traction on that. This 24/7 we think is going to be very big.

Marni Shapiro: So it’s mostly product based, which is really where you guys shine anyway?

Jay Schottenstein: Yeah. It’s going to be product-product based as well private. And at the same time, as Michael Rempell was saying and Mike Mathias was saying, we see — we’re looking at the real estate strategy a little different. We’re looking about how we take each market separate and we’re the best locations in those markets are, and our goal is to make sure that we have stores in the best locations in those given markets.

Marni Shapiro: Makes a lot of sense. And then, Jen, if I could just ask one quick follow-up to the AE jean situation. You’ve had some very big hits in the store that I’ve seen. And I’m curious, is has the market opened up enough that you can chase back into that product? I’m not calling out the product in the public forum for a reason. But do you have that ability to not chase what I’m seeing selling out very quickly?