Urban Outfitters, Inc. (URBN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the 2025 Annual Meeting of Shareholders for Urban Outfitters, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Oona McCullough, Executive Director of Investor Relations for Urban Outfitters, Inc. It's my pleasure to welcome you to the URBN Annual Shareholders Meeting. If you are logged on to Lumi, the virtual platform, you will see the agenda for today's meeting on your screen. The agenda for the formal portion of today's meeting has 3 major components. First, the election of 10 directors to serve until the 2026 Shareholders' Meeting. Second, a proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte as the company's independent registered public accounting firm. And third, to hold an advisory vote on approval of the company's executive compensation. If you have an 11-digit control number issued by AST and wish to vote during this meeting, you may do so by clicking the proxy voting site link on the left-hand panel of your screen. You must vote quickly because once we finish our introductions, the formal meeting will be called to order, at which time the polls will close and all voting will stop. You may also ask questions during the meeting if you are registered with your 11-digit voter control number. Please refer to the messaging icon at the top of the left side of your screen, type your question into the text box and click the send icon at the right of that text box. Before turning the meeting over to Dick Hayne, Chairman and CEO of Urban Outfitters, Inc., I call your attention to the company's disclaimer that the following discussions may include forward-looking statements. Please note that actual results may differ materially from those statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause those actual results to differ materially from projected results is contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please note today will be -- we will be speaking to our fiscal 2025 financial results on an adjusted basis, which does not include certain nonrecurring adjustments. The effect of these items was detailed in our fourth quarter fiscal 2025 press release. Now I will turn the meeting over to Dick.

Thank you, Oona. It is my pleasure to welcome URBN shareholders, directors, employees, service providers and friends of the company to our virtual annual meeting. Our agenda for today includes making brief introductions, conducting the formal business that Oona just outlined, discussing business results, and finally, answering your questions. As mentioned, polls will close after my introductions are complete. So now on to the introductions. Joining me to help conduct today's meeting and assist in answering your questions are Frank Conforti, Co-President and Chief Operating Officer of the company; Michael Silbert, General Counsel and Company Secretary; and Azeez Hayne, Chief Administrative Officer. For today's meeting, Azeez will also function as a judge of elections. It is now my pleasure to introduce our Board of Directors. Besides myself, our Board consists of 9 directors. They are Ed Antoian, Kelly Campbell, Harry Cherken, Mary Egan, Meg Hayne, Amin Maredia, Wesley McDonald, Todd Morgenfeld, and John Mulliken. These 9 colleagues have provided me and the company with valuable advice, guidance and oversight during the year, and I thank them for their service. We also have one service provider, Felix Orihuela, joining us virtually. Felix work for Equiniti, our transfer agent and vote compiler. Felix is prepared to answer shareholder questions concerning the vote tabulation, should any arise. Thank you for joining us today, Felix. With that, my introductions are complete. The polls are now officially closed, and I call the meeting to order. We will now conduct the company's formal business. The first item of formal business is a statement concerning the giving of notice and the presence of a quorum. Azeez, will you report on these 2 matters?

This meeting is held pursuant to printed notice stated and mailed to each shareholder of record on April 1, 2025. Sufficient votes are present in person or by proxy to constitute a quorum.

Thank you, Azeez. Since we have a quorum, we will conduct the 3 items of formal business that appear in the proxy statement, after which we will hear the vote on each item. The first of these 3 is the election of the Board of Directors. The 10 recommended nominees for directors standing for reelection are listed in the proxy statement provided to the shareholders. They are Ed Antoian, Kelly Campbell, Harry Cherken, Mary Egan, Meg Hayne, Richard Hayne, Amin Maredia, Wesley McDonald, Todd Morgenfeld, and John Mulliken. Each nominee elected will serve a term expiring at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders in 2026. The next item of business is the appointment of Deloitte as the company's auditor for the full year ending January 31, 2026. The third item of business is a nonbinding shareholder advisory vote on executive compensation. Azeez, can you please announce the voting results for each of these items?

All 10 directors listed in the proxy materials have been elected by a majority vote. The shareholders have also ratified the appointment of Deloitte as the company's independent registered public accounting firm. And the shareholders have approved the company's executive compensation in a nonbinding advisory vote.

Once again, thank you, Azeez. With that, all items of formal business as outlined in the proxy have been addressed by the shareholders. The actual vote from today's meeting will be reflected in a Form 8-K filing in the next few days. As always, the Board will review and carefully consider shareholder feedback as reflected by the voting results. Please note that the company has prepared and issued an annual report on Form 10-K. This report outlines the company's recent operating results and financial condition. The 10-K is available online at urbn.com. With that, the formal portion of today's meeting is now closed and I'll move on to a brief business review, including a discussion of recent operating results. Looking back on the last fiscal year, which ended on January 31, 2025. I couldn't be more proud of our teams and what they were able to accomplish. For the year, we delivered an impressive 8% revenue growth, adding nearly $400 million to reach a record of $5.6 billion. At the same time, our gross profit margin grew by 122 basis points, which drove a 22% increase in operating profit. This, in turn, lifted earnings by 26% to $4.06 per share and easily made FY '25 the most profitable year in URBN history. Fiscal '26 has started out equally as strong. We recently reported record first quarter results with revenue growing 11% and EPS increasing 78%. What a fantastic way to start the year. Operating profit came in just shy of our ambitious 10% goal, an incredible achievement. Despite the noise in the headlines and the broader economic uncertainty, our customers continued to show resilience in Q1. We have not seen any signs of a demand slowdown to date. In fact, customers were eager to -- for fresh spring fashion and our teams delivered. From compelling assortments to standout store experiences and inspiring marketing, we exceeded their expectations, and the result, positive comps across every brand and every segment. This performance speaks volumes about the strength of our strategies, the quality of our execution and the appeal of our brands. Most of all, it affirms the talent of our leaders and their teams. We're attracting new customers, keeping our loyal ones and growing our market share across the board. Each brand is playing a valuable role in the URBN portfolio. Anthropologie and Free People, our 2 larger brands, continue to grow their revenues and deliver healthy mid-teen operating margins. FP Movement is growing faster than its sister brand, thanks to new store openings and strong wholesale demand. And Nuuly, our women's apparel rental business, is one of the most exciting high-growth concepts in the market today. Both FP Movement and Nuuly are nicely profitable, gaining brand awareness and showing real potential to scale. Urban Outfitters North America is making steady progress. Stores were comp positive for the quarter and the number of new full price customers grew nicely. In Europe, Urban delivered powerful comp sales gains that led to a jump in profitability. All in all, I'm delighted with how our brands are performing. Of course, we're keeping a close eye on supply chain risks and global uncertainty. But based on what we know today, we believe we can continue to grow revenue and expand margins, not just in Q2 but for the full year and beyond. We're confident URBN is well positioned to -- for continued success. That concludes my prepared remarks. I will now pause and ask Oona if there are any questions from shareholders.

It does not appear we have any questions.

Okay. Since there are none, the URBN 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting now stands adjourned. Thank you for your interest and participation.