Bath & Body Works, Inc.

Good morning. My name is Zetania, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the L Brands Third Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Calls. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star zero. Thank you. I will now turn the call over to Ms. Amy Preston, Chief Investor Relations Officer of L Brands. You may begin.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to LBRAND's third quarter earnings conference call for the period ending Saturday, November 2nd, 2019. As a matter of formality, I need to remind you that any forward-looking statements we may make today are subject to our safe harbor statement found in our SEC filings and in our press releases. Our third quarter earnings release, additional commentary, and earnings presentation are available on our website, lb.com. All of the results discussed in today's call are adjusted results and exclude the significant items described in our press release. Stuart Bergdorfer, EBP and CFO, and I will handle the call today. Thanks, and now I'll turn the call over to Stuart.

Thanks, Amy, and good morning, everyone. Our third quarter earnings per share result of two cents was within our forecasted range of between a loss of five cents and earnings of five cents. Bath and Body Works exceeded our expectations for the quarter and continues to deliver strong results with a 9% comp increase and a 10% increase in operating income. Outperformance at Bath and Body Works was offset by Victoria's secret result that was at the low end of our expectations. Looking to the fourth quarter, we are forecasting earnings per share of about $2. New CEOs John Mijas and Amy Hawk are very focused on getting close to our customers and making improvements to our merchandise assortments, marketing, and customer experiences in stores and online. We have more work to do, and we recognize that it will take some time to see improvement in the business. Also, as mentioned earlier, we are up against aggressive promotions from last year, and the time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is six days shorter than last year. Therefore, our fourth quarter guidance assumes a Victoria's Secret merchandise margin dollar decline in the high single-digit range, which is consistent with our third quarter result. We expect continued strong performance from Bath & Body Works. We're very focused on executing a successful holiday. We will continue to rely on the strength of our agility, and we will continue to test pricing and promotion strategies, react to customer preferences, and chase into proven product winners to drive results. Thanks, and over to you, Amy.