Written by StockNews.com

Tailored Brands Inc. (NYSE: TLRD) late Wednesday [Mar 8, 2017 | 4:28pm] posted extremely weak earnings and offered a much lower than anticipated outlook for 2017, sending its shares plunging as much as 26% in aftermarket trading.

The Houston-based formal wear giant, which was formed via the merger between Men’s Wearhouse and Joseph A. Bank, reported adjusted Q4 EPS of ($0.19), which was $0.06 worse than the Wall Street consensus estimate for a loss of ($0.13).

Revenues fell 4.0% from last year to $793 million, also badly missing analysts’ view for $811.36 million.

On another sour note, total quarterly comparable sales (“comps”) fell 1.2% in the period, with Men’s Wearhouse comps down 2.2% and Joseph A. Bank comps up 3.6%. Comparable sales are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health since they only measure the year-over-year performance of locations open at least 12 months.

Looking ahead, TLRD’s 2018 forecast was downright disastrous. The company expects full-year EPS to range from $1.45 to $1.75, a far cry from the $2.10 that Wall Street was looking for. It also sees similarly bad comps as it realized in the previous quarter.

The company commented on the very weak results and outlook via press release:

“Unfortunately, the challenging retail environment resulted in soft traffic across our retail brands, which drove lower than anticipated fourth quarter and full year net sales and gross margins.

“Our 2017 plan includes reinvestment of some of the cost savings we achieved to support our omni-channel strategies. The demand for convenience, a more personalized experience and casual wardrobe options has never been more pronounced. In response, we are accelerating our efforts to translate our high-service, in-store experience online and to drive additional traffic to our stores.”

Investors sold off Tailored Brands shares in droves following the report, with the stock plunging $6.07 (-25.97%) to $17.30 in after-hours trading Wednesday. Year-to-date, TLRD had already declined -8.53% prior to today’s news, versus a +5.83% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

TLRD currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of B (Buy) and is ranked #15 of 67 stocks in the Fashion & Luxury category.