American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to AEO, Inc. First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star, and then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Alexis Dragos, Vice President, Corporate Communications. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon, everyone. Joining me today for our prepared remarks are Jay Schottenstein, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Jen Foyle, President, Executive Creative Director for American Eagle and Aerie, and Mike Mathias, Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin today's call, I need to remind you that we will make certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based upon information that represents the company's current expectations or beliefs. The results actually realized may differ materially based on risk factors included in our SEC filings. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by law. Note that included in our press release and during this call, certain financial metrics are presented on both a GAAP and non-GAAP adjusted basis. Reconciliations of adjusted results to the GAAP results are available in the tables attached to the earnings release, which is posted on our corporate website at www.aeo-inc.com in the investor relations section. Here, you can also find our first quarter investor presentation. Now, I'll turn the call over to Jay.

Thanks, Alexis, and good afternoon, everyone. This quarter reflected the strength of our portfolio, the power of Aerie, and work underway at American Eagle. Overall, we are pleased with performance of the quarter. We delivered revenue of $1.2 billion, up 10% versus last year, with operating income of $28 million ahead of our guidance. AIRI continued to fuel exceptional growth and profitability across channels, surpassing $2 billion on a trailing 12-month basis. AE's performance in men's and women's tops continued their momentum, Yet we have identified specific opportunities to better position women's bodies. Over the past year, our teams have moved with urgency to strengthen the business and improve execution. And I am proud of the progress we have made. We're moving with purpose and with a firm understanding of where improvement is needed. We are extremely pleased with the continued momentum in area and offline. with revenue of $481 million, up 34% to last year. Demand remains strong across categories and channels, supported by compelling product collections, high customer engagement, and continued expansion of brand awareness. Earing's winning formula is its real connection with customers, product positioning, and its leadership in everyday comfort. offline also continues to be an important long-term growth opportunity as we build awareness and skill the activewear brand across stores digital and social together arian offline are powerful brands with growing recognition a loyal customer community and significant runway ahead american eagles results were mixed in the quarter we had continued strength in men's delivering the third consecutive quarter of positive performance. We saw softer trends in women's bottoms, including denim along with pressure on seasonal categories during a colder spring. These are areas we understand well, and we are actively addressing. While May started slowly for the AE brand, we're encouraged by the improvement in the business that we have seen over the last few weeks. We remain highly confident in the relevance and resilience of the overall A brand and in our ability to strengthen execution and drive better results moving forward. We must improve conversion, sharpen assortments, drive greater productivity in women's and build on the progress in men's. Marketing continues to be an important investment across the portfolio and a key driver of long-term brand health. Supporting both AE and Aerie through initiatives that deepen customer connection, expand our reach, and keep our brands at the center of culture and conversation are positioning us well for the future. This value is seen in strong engagement across the portfolio where our product and brand message continues to resonate with both new and existing customers. The attention around key campaigns talent, and customer activation only reinforces the power of our brand. We are leveraging our learnings as we activate go-forward plans and are working to recalibrate spending to maximize our efforts. We will continue investing behind our brands and capabilities where we see the strongest returns. We are excited about the opening of our West Coast Distribution Center in Phoenix. which went live in early May. As we further optimize our distribution network, improve inventory placement, and continue to give customers more ways to get what they want when they want it. I am especially proud of our innovation, passion, and teamwork that enabled us to bring this facility online in under one year. Every investment we make supports our long-term growth agenda and creates value for AEO. We're operating in a dynamic environment and the retail landscape remains highly fluid. This is why execution matters and we understand the importance of staying disciplined and flexible. We remain fully prepared to utilize the many levers available to us within product, sourcing, marketing, and operations to navigate headwinds as a result of macroeconomic uncertainty. Finally, I wanna thank our associates across the company. We are proud of the work our teams have done to build a stronger and more agile operating foundation across the organization. Their commitment and dedication to AEO and our brands have been critical to the success and progress we are seeing. We all believe strongly in the opportunities that lay ahead. As America celebrates 250 years, We are incredibly proud of our permanent place in the fabric of American style. We have powerful brands, a solid operating foundation, and a clear pathway to drive profitable growth and deliver long-term value for shareholders. With that, I'll turn the call over to Jay.