Burlington Stores, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings
BURLINGTON, N.J., March 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Burlington Stores, Inc. (NYSE: BURL), a nationally recognized off-price retailer of high-quality, branded apparel, footwear, accessories, and merchandise for the home at everyday low prices, today announced its results for the fourth quarter and full year ended January 31, 2026.
Michael O’Sullivan, CEO, stated, “We are very pleased with our strong performance in the fourth quarter. Comparable store sales increased 4%, on top of a robust 6% increase the prior year. This represents a very strong 10% two-year comp stack. Adjusted EBIT margin was 100 basis points higher than last year, and 50 basis points above the high end of our expectations. This sales and margin performance drove 21% earnings per share growth. This was a very strong performance in our largest quarter of the year.”
Mr. O’Sullivan went on, “Looking back on 2025 as a whole, total sales increased 9% on top of an 11% increase the prior year, and comparable store sales increased 2% on top of 4% last year. When tariffs were introduced in April, we took actions to offset the negative margin impact of tariffs. These actions were spectacularly successful in driving earnings. Despite tariffs, Adjusted EBIT margin increased 80 basis points, resulting in 22% earnings per share growth."
Mr. O’Sullivan concluded, “We are feeling bullish about our prospects in Fiscal 2026. There are external and internal factors that are driving this optimism. Our full year comp guidance of 1% to 3% growth is now slightly ahead of our typical model, reflecting our optimism. In fact, we think that there may be potential upside to our expectations, and we have positioned the business to aggressively chase sales.”
Fiscal 2025 Fourth Quarter Operating Results
Full Year Fiscal 2025 Results
Inventory
Liquidity and Debt
Common Stock Repurchases
Outlook
For Fiscal Year 2026 (the 52-weeks ending January 30, 2027), the Company expects:
For the First Quarter of Fiscal 2026 (the 13 weeks ending May 2, 2026), the Company expects:
The Company has not presented a quantitative reconciliation of the forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures set out above to their most comparable GAAP financial measures because it would require the Company to create estimated ranges on a GAAP basis, which would entail unreasonable effort. Adjustments required to reconcile forward-looking non-GAAP measures cannot be predicted with reasonable certainty but may include, among others, costs related to debt amendments, loss on extinguishments of debt, and impairment charges, as well as the tax effect of such items. Some or all of those adjustments could be significant.
Note Regarding Non-GAAP Financial Measures
The foregoing discussion of the Company’s operating results includes references to Adjusted SG&A, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted Earnings per Share (or Adjusted EPS), Adjusted EBIT (or Adjusted Operating Income), Adjusted EBIT Margin (or Adjusted Operating Margin), and Adjusted Effective Tax Rate. The Company believes these supplemental measures are useful in evaluating the performance of our business and provide greater transparency into our results of operations. In particular, we believe that excluding certain items that may vary substantially in frequency and magnitude from what we consider to be our core operating results are useful supplemental measures that assist investors and management in evaluating our ability to generate earnings and leverage sales, and to more readily compare core operating results between past and future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures are defined and reconciled to the most comparable GAAP measures later in this document.
Fourth Quarter 2025 Conference Call
The Company will hold a conference call on March 5, 2026, at 8:30 a.m. ET to discuss the Company’s fourth quarter and full year Fiscal 2025 results. The U.S. toll free dial-in for the conference call is 1-800-715-9871 (passcode: 3196665) and the international dial-in number is 1-646-307-1963. A live webcast of the conference call will also be available on the investor relations page of the company's website at www.burlingtoninvestors.com.
For those unable to participate in the conference call, a replay will be available after the conclusion of the call on March 5, 2026 beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET through March 12, 2026 11:59 p.m. ET. The U.S. toll-free replay dial-in number is 1-800-770-2030 and the international replay dial-in number is 1-609-800-9909. The replay passcode is 3196665.
About Burlington Stores, Inc.
Burlington Stores, Inc., headquartered in New Jersey, is a nationally recognized off-price retailer with Fiscal 2025 net sales of $11.5 billion. The Company is a Fortune 500 company and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BURL.” The Company operated 1,212 stores as of the end of the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2025, in 46 states, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, principally under the name Burlington Stores. The Company’s stores offer an extensive selection of in-season, high-quality branded merchandise at up to 60% off other retailers' prices, including fashion-focused women’s apparel, menswear, youth apparel, baby, beauty, footwear, accessories, home, toys, gifts and coats.
For more information about the Company, visit www.burlington.com.
Investor Relations Contacts:
David J. Glick
855-973-8445
Info@BurlingtonInvestors.com
Allison Malkin
ICR, Inc.
203-682-8225
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking and Cautionary Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release, including those about our long-term prospects and the external environment, as well as statements describing our outlook for future periods, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements discuss our current expectations and projections relating to our financial condition, results of operations, plans, objectives, future performance and business. You can identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. We do not undertake to publicly update or revise our forward-looking statements, except as required by law, even if experience or future changes make it clear that any projected results expressed or implied in such statements will not be realized. If we do update one or more forward-looking statements, no inference should be made that we will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual events or results to differ materially from those we expected, including general economic conditions, such as inflation, and the domestic and international political situation and the related impact on consumer confidence and spending; competitive factors, including the scale and potential consolidation of some of our competitors, rise of e-commerce spending, pricing and promotional activities of major competitors, and an increase in competition within the markets in which we compete; seasonal fluctuations in our net sales, operating income and inventory levels; the reduction in traffic to, or the closing of, the other destination retailers in the shopping areas where our stores are located; our ability to identify changing consumer preferences and demand; our ability to meet evolving regulatory requirements and stakeholder expectations regarding environmental, social or governance matters; extreme and/or unseasonable weather conditions caused by climate change or otherwise adversely impacting demand; effects of public health crises, epidemics or pandemics; our ability to sustain our growth plans or successfully implement our long-range strategic plans; our ability to execute our opportunistic buying and inventory management process; our ability to optimize our existing stores or maintain favorable lease terms; the availability, selection and purchasing of attractive brand name merchandise on favorable terms; our ability to attract, train and retain quality employees and temporary personnel in sufficient numbers; labor costs and our ability to manage a large workforce; the solvency of parties with whom we do business and their willingness to perform their obligations to us; import risks, including tax and trade policies, tariffs and government regulations; disruption in our distribution network; our ability to protect our information systems against service interruption, misappropriation of data, breaches of security, or other cyber-related attacks; risks related to the methods of payment we accept; the success of our advertising and marketing programs in generating sufficient levels of customer traffic and awareness; damage to our corporate reputation or brand; impact of potential loss of executives or other key personnel; our ability to comply with existing and changing laws, rules, regulations and local codes; lack of or insufficient insurance coverage; issues with merchandise safety and shrinkage; our ability to comply with increasingly rigorous privacy and data security regulations; impact of legal and regulatory proceedings relating to us; use of social media by us or by third parties at our direction in violation of applicable laws and regulations; our ability to generate sufficient cash to fund our operations and service our debt obligations; our ability to comply with covenants in our debt agreements; the consequences of the possible conversion of our convertible notes; our reliance on dividends, distributions and other payments, advance and transfers of funds from our subsidiaries to meet our obligations; the volatility of our stock price; the impact of the anti-takeover provisions in our governing documents; impact of potential shareholder activism; and each of the factors that may be described from time to time in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including under the heading “Risk Factors” in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and as further updated under the heading “Risk Factors” in our subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. For each of these factors, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended.
Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures
(Unaudited)
(Amounts in thousands, except per share data)
The following tables calculate the Company’s Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EPS, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBIT, Adjusted SG&A and Adjusted Effective Tax Rate, all of which are considered non-GAAP financial measures. Generally, a non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company’s performance, financial position or cash flows that either excludes or includes amounts that are not normally excluded or included in the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP.
Adjusted Net Income is defined as net income, exclusive of the following items, if applicable: (i) interest expense; (ii) interest income; (iii) loss on extinguishment of debt; (iv) costs related to debt amendments; (v) income tax expense; (vi) depreciation and amortization; (vii) net favorable lease costs; (viii) impairment charges; (ix) amounts related to certain litigation matters; and (x) other unusual, non-recurring expenses, losses, charges or gains.
Adjusted EPS is defined as Adjusted Net Income divided by the diluted weighted average shares outstanding, as defined in the table below.
Adjusted EBITDA is defined as net income, exclusive of the following items, if applicable: (i) interest expense; (ii) interest income; (iii) loss on extinguishment of debt; (iv) costs related to debt amendments; (v) income tax expense; (vi) depreciation and amortization; (vii) net favorable lease costs; (viii) impairment charges; (ix) amounts related to certain litigation matters; and (x) other unusual, non-recurring expenses, losses, charges or gains.
Adjusted EBIT (or Adjusted Operating Income) is defined as net income, exclusive of the following items, if applicable: (i) interest expense; (ii) interest income; (iii) loss on extinguishment of debt; (iv) costs related to debt amendments; (v) income tax expense; (vi) impairment charges; (vii) net favorable lease costs; (viii) amounts related to certain litigation matters; and (ix) other unusual, non-recurring expenses, losses, charges or gains.
Adjusted EBIT Margin (or Adjusted Operating Margin) is defined as Adjusted EBIT divided by net sales.
Adjusted SG&A is defined as SG&A less product sourcing costs, favorable lease costs and amounts related to certain litigation matters.
Adjusted Effective Tax Rate is defined as the GAAP effective tax rate less the tax effect of the reconciling items to arrive at Adjusted Net Income (footnote (h) in the table below).
The Company presents Adjusted Net Income, Adjusted EPS, Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBIT (or Adjusted Operating Income), Adjusted EBIT Margin (or Adjusted Operating Margin), Adjusted SG&A and Adjusted Effective Tax Rate, because it believes they are useful supplemental measures in evaluating the performance of the Company’s business and provide greater transparency into the results of operations. In particular, the Company believes that excluding certain items that may vary substantially in frequency and magnitude from what the Company considers to be its core operating results are useful supplemental measures that assist in evaluating the Company’s ability to generate earnings and leverage sales, and to more readily compare core operating results between past and future periods.
The Company believes that these non-GAAP measures provide investors helpful information with respect to the Company’s operations and financial condition. Other companies in the retail industry may calculate these non-GAAP measures differently such that the Company’s calculation may not be directly comparable.
The following table shows the Company’s reconciliation of net income to Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS for the periods indicated:
The following table shows the Company’s reconciliation of net income to Adjusted EBIT and Adjusted EBITDA for the periods indicated:
The following table shows the Company’s reconciliation of SG&A to Adjusted SG&A for the periods indicated:
The following table shows the reconciliation of the Company’s effective tax rates on a GAAP basis to the Adjusted Effective Tax Rates for the periods indicated:
The following table shows the Company’s reconciliation of net income to Adjusted Net Income for the prior period Adjusted EPS amounts used in this press release for the periods indicated: