Jones Group posts surprise profit helped by jeans wear surge

Jones Group, the fashion and footwear company behind such brands as Nine West, Stuart Weitzman, and Jones New York, reported an unexpected operating profit on Wednesday, helped by a surge in sales of its jeans to U.S. department stores last quarter.

Revenue slipped 1.1 percent $845.6 million, but was still better than the $837 million Wall Street was expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Wholesale jeans wear sales, previously a struggling business, led the charge with a 20.9 percent jump, and international wholesale footwear sales also improved.

Jones' posted a net loss of $3.2 million, or 5 cents per share, for the period ended July 6, compared with net income of $8.4 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier.

But excluding costs related to restructuring, the company earned 2 cents per share, while Wall Street was expecting a loss of 12 cents per share.

Jones lowered its sales forecast for the fiscal year slightly to a range of $3.79 billion to $3.89 billion, from $3.80 billion to $3.95 billion. The new range was largely in line with Wall Street expectations.