Why Kirkland's Stock Plunged 30% in Morning Trading Today

Shares of furniture retailer Kirkland's (NASDAQ: KIRK) fell out of bed on Thursday, dropping a massive 30% in early trading. Driving the decline was the company's pre-market release of third-quarter 2021 earnings. Investors were not happy with the numbers and were likely even less pleased with the company's outlook for the rest of 2021.

Kirkland's reported sales of $143.6 million in the third quarter of 2021, down 2% from the same period in 2020. Notably, comparable-store sales were lower by 0.7%, a figure that includes a 7.3% increase in e-commerce sales. So its physical stores performed pretty badly during the quarter.

Gross profit margin dropped 1.4 percentage points as the company faced supply chain headwinds, notably in shipping. This was no small issue, as the company noted that gross margin would have improved if it hadn't faced those rising shipping costs. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $0.51, compared to $0.66 in the third quarter of 2020.

Source Fool.com