www.cache.com

Oct 23 (Reuters) - Women's apparel retailer Cache Inc (CACH.O) posted a wider-than-expected quarterly loss, hurt partly by increased markdowns, but expects to return to profitability in the fourth quarter.

For the fourth quarter, Cache sees earnings of 12 cents to 15 cents a share on net sales of $62 million to $64 million.

Analysts on average were expecting a profit of 8 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $60.9 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"Increasing our confidence in our ability to generate better results in the fourth quarter is the improvement in our sales trend thus far in October," Chief Executive Thomas Reinckens said in a statement.

Reinckens said he expects to strengthen gross profit margin in the fourth quarter, given the acceleration in markdowns to the third quarter.

For the third quarter ended Sept. 26, Cache posted a loss of $6.8 million, or 53 cents a share, compared with a loss of $1.6 million, or 12 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, it posted a loss of 43 cents a share.

Revenue fell 23 percent to $44.9 million, while same-store sales declined 22 percent.

Analysts on average had expected a loss of 20 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $48.3 million.

Shares of the New York City-based retailer closed at $4.94 Thursday 22 October on Nasdaq.

For the related alerts double click (Reporting by Renju Jose in Bangalore; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)