Shares of Aaron’s Company (NYSE:ON) are in free fall in after-hours trading as the company reported a loss in the fourth quarter and forecast a 2024 loss that is significantly worse than Street expectations.
The company reported this a loss of $0.26 per share on a 10.2% decline in revenue to $529.5 million. This compares to a profit of $0.09 in the same quarter last year below expectations for a profit of $0.03 per share. Total revenue was forecast at $542.1 million.
Cash provided by operating activities fell 32.8% to $31.3 million, while adjusted free cash flow fell 35.6% to $15.9 million. At the end of the year, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $59 million and $331 million of availability remaining on its $375 million revolving credit facility.
Adjusted EBITDA fell to $33.8 million from $36.2 million, due to lower rental revenue and fees at Aaron’s Business and lower retail sales at BrandsMart.
Gross profit margin increased to 62.8% from 61.5%.
For 2024, Aaron expects revenue to be in the range of $2.055 billion to $2.155 billion, up from $2.14 billion in 2023 and below the consensus estimate of $2.20 billion.
The company also set a range for adjusted EPS of a loss of $0.10 per share to a profit of $0.25 per share. This compares to a profit of $0.81 per share in 2023 and the consensus estimate for a profit of $1.09 per share.
Aaron will host his earnings conference call Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. ET.
The actions were down up to 28% during after-hours trading on Monday.