Why Designer Brands (DBI) Shares Are Trading Lower Today

What Happened?

Shares of footwear and accessories discount retailer Designer Brands (NYSE:DBI) fell 6.3% in the morning session after the stock pulled back as the company reported mixed third-quarter results, with an earnings beat overshadowed by a sales miss and declining comparable sales. 

Designer Brands announced adjusted earnings per share of 38 cents, which was better than the analyst consensus estimate of 18 cents. However, the company's sales figures appeared to weigh on investor sentiment. Quarterly sales came in at $752.4 million, missing the Street's view and representing a 3.2% decrease compared to the same period in the previous year. Furthermore, total comparable sales, a key indicator of a retailer's health, also fell by 2.4%. The negative reaction in the market suggested that concerns about the falling sales outweighed the positive earnings surprise.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

Designer Brands’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 74 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was about 24 hours ago when the stock gained 9.1% on the news that the company reported third-quarter adjusted earnings that significantly beat analyst expectations. Designer Brands posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.38, which was more than double the Wall Street consensus estimate of about $0.18. This represented a surge of over 40% compared to the same period in the previous year. The strong profit performance came even as the company's net sales decreased by 3.2%. The beat on the bottom line was driven by a 210-basis point improvement in gross margin and disciplined management of inventory and expenses. The results suggested the company's turnaround efforts were taking hold, boosting investor confidence.

Designer Brands is up 50.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $7.97 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $8.47 from December 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Designer Brands’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,113.

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