Carter's (CRI) Q3 Earnings Lag Estimates

Core Viewpoint - Carter's reported quarterly earnings of $0.74 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.78 per share, and a significant decline from $1.64 per share a year ago, indicating a negative earnings surprise of -5.13% [1] - The company posted revenues of $757.84 million for the quarter ended September 2025, slightly surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.91%, but down from $758.46 million year-over-year [2] Earnings Performance - Over the last four quarters, Carter's has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times, but the recent earnings report reflects a continued trend of underperformance [2][6] - The company's shares have declined approximately 40.3% since the beginning of the year, contrasting with the S&P 500's gain of 15.5% [3] Future Outlook - The future performance of Carter's stock will largely depend on management's commentary during the earnings call and the revisions of earnings estimates [3][4] - The current consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming quarter is $1.71 on revenues of $835.15 million, and for the current fiscal year, it is $3.24 on revenues of $2.8 billion [7] Industry Context - The Shoes and Retail Apparel industry, to which Carter's belongs, is currently ranked in the bottom 16% of over 250 Zacks industries, suggesting a challenging environment for the company [8] - Empirical research indicates a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions, which could impact Carter's stock performance [5]