By Linda Pasquini and Isabel Demetz
(Reuters) – German sportswear brand Puma’s first-quarter sales met expectations on Wednesday, sending its shares rising more than 4%, helped by demand for its retro shoes and a return to growth in the Americas region, the company said.
Currency-adjusted sales rose 0.5% to 2.10 billion euros ($2.26 billion), in line with the 2.1 billion expected by analysts, Refinitiv data showed.
Demand for retro shoe styles such as ‘terrace’ has helped boost sales of sportswear brands like Puma and its rival Adidas at a time when the sector has been hit by weaker consumer demand and excess stocks.
“We already see that sales of our trending terrace and skate styles Palermo and Suede XL are accelerating month over month,” Chief Executive Arne Freundt said in a statement.
Shares rose 4.3% to 47.15 euros in early trading.
“No miss could provide some relief to the shares this morning,” given a weakness in the share price so far this year, analysts at J.P. Morgan wrote in a note to clients.
The Americas region recorded positive sales growth for the first time in four quarters, the company said, growing by 1.0% to 790 million euros, with the U.S. showing a sequential improvement.
While retail partners are still working through elevated stock levels, the company expects further improvement in the second quarter, Freundt said.
Reported sales for the group declined 3.9% from a year earlier, with currencies hitting sales in euro terms by around 100 million euros in the quarter, the company said.
Puma’s wholesale business declined by 2.9% currency-adjusted to 1.61 million euros.
($1 = 0.9310 euros)
(Reporting by Linda Pasquini and Isabel Demetz; Additional reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Jason Neely, Christopher Cushing, Philippa Fletcher)
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