On Wednesday, Five Below (NASDAQ:FIVE) discussed first-quarter financial results during its earnings call. The full transcript is provided below.
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Summary
X5 Retail Group NV reported a strong first quarter with sales growth of nearly 33% to $1.3 billion, driven by a 23% increase in comparable sales and the opening of 49 net new stores.
Adjusted EPS grew to $2.22 per share, more than doubling compared to the same period last year.
The company raised its full-year outlook, expecting total sales between $5.4 and $5.48 billion, reflecting a 14% increase, with a comparable sales growth range of 6-8%.
Key drivers of growth included strategic marketing through social media, engaging in social trends, and enhancing in-store experiences.
Inventory rose by 16% to $813 million, positioning the company well for upcoming seasons despite global supply chain challenges.
The company continues to focus on expanding its customer database to enhance direct social and digital marketing efforts.
Management expressed caution about the macroeconomic environment but remains confident in the company’s growth strategies and execution capabilities.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and welcome to the Five Below first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialists 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 touchtone phone. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms.
Christiana Pelz, Vice President and Investor Relations. Please go ahead ma’am.
Christiana Pelz (Vice President and Investor Relations)
Thank you operator Good afternoon everyone and thanks for joining us today for Five Below’s first quarter 2026 financial results conference call. On today’s call are Winnie Park, Chief Executive Officer and Dan Sullivan, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. After management has made their formal remarks, we will open the call to questions. Certain comments made during this call may constitute forward looking statements. Such forward looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such statements, including those described in the press release and our SEC filings.
In this presentation we will refer to our SG&A expenses which for us includes depreciation and amortization. Additionally, we will be discussing certain non GAAP financial measures. Please review today’s press release which is posted on our Investor relations website for a reconciliation of these items to the most directly comparable US GAAP measure and a cautionary statement regarding forward looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Winnie.
Thank you Christiana and hello all. I want to start by saying how grateful I am to our amazing Five Below crew. They have executed our strategy at an exceptional level by staying laser focused on what matters most, the customer. Our boss. Our first quarter results are a testament to their great work which reflects our operating flywheel in action and demonstrates the traction we’ve made in transforming our business and strengthening our position as the destination for the kid and the kid in all of us.
For the first quarter we’re reporting results that that exceeded our expectations with sales growth of nearly 33% to $1.3 billion driven by 23% comp growth and strong new store performance including 49 net new stores that opened during the quarter. Adjusted EPS of $2.22 per share grew over two and a half times compared to the first quarter of last year. With this positive momentum and despite an expected more challenging macro environment as the year plays out, we are raising our full year outlook which Dan will discuss shortly.
Our outsized sales growth in the quarter was driven by three key factors. First, we continue to see the customer reacting favorably to our strategy and the changes we made to our operating model. We often talk about the three legs of the stool that support our unique value proposition. The first leg is curated product storytelling focused on newness and amazing value across our assortment. Second, meeting the customer where they are with relevant marketing and social and digital media.
Third, easier and more fun shopping experiences in our stores which offer better in stock positions and streamline pricing. Importantly, we operate as a real team galvanizing all of our corporate ship centers and stores in six curtain up moments that celebrate the seasons and milestones in our customers lives. The second driver of our sales growth was engaging in social trends to amplify their virality. While we have benefited from trends in the past, we are now able to actively engage with our customers through social media, direct marketing and finally within store activations.
Our marketing toolkit is expanding and with the adoption of social first approach we are so much more reactive and relevant in messaging and engaging with our Gen Alpha, Gen Z and Millennial mom communities. And third, we benefited from customers spending their higher tax refunds. We leveraged our position as a value retailer to make fun and newness accessible to all. We continue to push ourselves to deliver aspirational product stories at very accessible price points.
Importantly, our growth was broad based with 15 of 18 departments comping positively. Games and toys were particularly strong, driven by collectibles and the overall swish trend. We again grew in all districts, all vintages of stores and across all income cohorts. The comp growth was disproportionately driven by transactions up 19% with ticket up 4% reflecting strong traffic, customer engagement and continued success in our value proposition across price points.
This reinforces what we’ve consistently said. Our strategy is not reliant on a single product or trend, but rather driven by a full assortment of products at great relative value and supported by strong execution. Identifying and capitalizing on trends is a core and growing capability at five below and one that our newer, more impactful marketing strategy and campaigns enable us to amplify as we did with the authentic RMS Squishy Dumpling. Leveraging our enhanced social activation capabilities and working with more agility cross functionally we fueled a cultural zeitgeist that has reinforced the strength of our brand with our core customers while
also introducing the brand to new customers. This end to end approach from detecting a burgeoning trend to amplifying it in social to creating an amazing in store experience. That’s our special sauce and we’re just getting started with how much more we can do here. Our teams remain laser focused on consistently executing against our core pillars. The three Cs 1 staying maniacally focused on our target customers, 2 delivering a connected customer journey from social to in store and three Collaborating cross functionally to enhance execution.
This focus allows us to deliver amazing new products packed with compelling value, engage with our customers on social media and digital, and execute consistently at a high level on merchandise. Specifically, we differentiated our offering through trend right newness at amazing price value. The popularity of candy, beauty and toys help fulfill Valentine gift needs and fill Easter baskets. Our robust games and toys Growth in the quarter further evidenced our role as the greatest little toy store in America.
Our focus on curating licensed products led to an exclusive collaboration with an old favorite, Winnie the Pooh. Value remains a critical component to our offering and and we believe our customers recognize the compelling value we provide. Whether it be at $5 and below our foundation and the vast majority of our products or $6 and above. We’re very disciplined about ensuring it’s not just another product on the shelf, but something that delivers wow value and really speaks to our customers need for newness and fun.
With our new cross functional go to market process in place, the team’s focus on bringing the products to life by delivering curtain up moments for Valentine’s and Easter. We also hosted in store activations to help our customers celebrate special moments such as the 30th anniversary of Pokemon on National Pokemon Day in our entire network of stores. In terms of marketing, as I mentioned earlier, we engaged our customers in social with creator content highlighting trends, newness and viral moments.
We also deployed amazing AI content and connected TV commercials focused on seasonal moments. During the quarter, we made great progress building an email database which will sharpen our ability to direct social and digital marketing content. To better engage with our customers and develop a more personalized relationship with them across our fleet, we host fun treasure hunt shopping experiences for the whole family. Our labor model is designed to ensure in stock positions while we simplify pricing structure and improved visual presentations have made our stores easier to shop.
We’ve largely completed integrating buy beyond product in line in their appropriate worlds and we are now testing layouts and designs within the store to further strengthen the shopping experience while improving sales. So to wrap up, I’m really excited about our first quarter results. They demonstrate the strength of what we’ve built and the progress we’re making in staying maniacally focused on our customer. We’re just getting started with what we can do across merchandising, marketing and the store experience.
More to come but we are confident that the strategies we put in place will enable us to deliver sustainability, sustainable growth on the top and bottom line and drive long term value creation. With that, I’ll turn it over to Dan.
Dan Sullivan (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)
Thanks Winnie. Good afternoon everyone. I’d like to start by also thanking our crew for their incredible focus on serving our customers in the face of growing macro challenges and an increasingly cautious consumer. Our results exceeded our expectations in the quarter and further reinforced the strength of our unique retail concept. For the first quarter, net sales increased nearly 33% to $1.3 billion, supported by a strong comparable sales increase of approximately 23% on a two year stack basis.
Comp sales grew approximately 30%. Q1 represented our fifth consecutive quarter of positive comp sales growth and fourth straight of double digit growth with widespread increases in new and retained customers as well as well as across all income cohorts. Growth across games and toys was noteworthy, underpinned by strong support in squishy trends and collectibles. We opened 49 net new stores across 25 states compared to 55 new stores in the first quarter last year.
We grew our store count by 8% year over year and ended the quarter with 1970 stores. As Winnie mentioned, we were very pleased with the performance across our fleet as growth rates were similar across all classes of stores. Adjusted gross profit increased 46% to $479 million or 37.2% in rate of sale, an increase of approximately 340 basis points compared to Q1 last year. This was primarily driven by fixed cost leverage on the strong comp sales with efficiencies in distribution and a lower shrink accrual.
Also contributing. Adjusted SG&A expenses totaled $324 million or 25.2% in rate of sale, a decrease of approximately 250 basis points compared to Q1 last year. This was primarily driven by fixed cost leverage on the strong comp sales, partially offset by increased incentive costs and higher store labor related to the April physical inventory counts. The profit flow through on our sales growth was strong. Adjusted operating income grew 160% to $155 million and adjusted operating margin increased approximately 600 basis points to 12%.
Net interest income was $8 million or $2 million above last year, primarily due to a higher average cash balance throughout the quarter. Adjusted net income for the quarter grew 160% to $123 million and adjusted earnings per share increased 158% to $2.22. We ended the first quarter in a strong cash position with approximately $1.1 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments. Inventory was $813 million at the end of the first quarter, an increase of approximately 16% with a commensurate 10% increase in units.
Average inventory per store was up 7% at the end of Q1. The increase in inventory reflects both opportunistic buying during this favorable tariff environment and taking the appropriate steps to ensure seamless flow of product amidst a more challenging global supply chain environment. Overall, we believe we’re in very good inventory position heading into the summer and holiday periods. Now I want to turn to our expectations for the remainder of the year.
We’re very pleased with our Q1 performance and remain highly convicted in our ability to continue to generate durable, sustainable growth. At the same time, we remain cautious with respect to the macro environment, consumer sentiment and buying behaviors. As such, we have left our half two comparable sales assumptions unchanged from our previous guidance on tariffs. We have now flowed through the estimated benefits from the 10% global tariff rate of that is in place through July 24, and we continue to assume that the tariffs will then revert to the rates that were in place at the beginning of the fiscal year.
I’d like to also point out that our guidance does not assume any impact from IPA tariff refunds. With this as context, I’ll now turn to our outlook for the second quarter. We are raising our previous implied outlook. We now expect total sales in the range of 1.18 to $1.2 billion or growth of 16% at the midpoint versus last year’s second quarter with comparable sales growth between 7 and 9%. We expect to open approximately 50 new stores in the second quarter compared to 32 last year.
Adjusted operating margin at the midpoint is expected to be 7% versus 5.4% in the second quarter last year with the 160 basis point increase driven by gross margin expansion partially offset by higher sga. Adjusted gross margin in the second quarter reflects higher merchandise margins, fixed cost leverage, and a lower shrink accrual, partially offset by the effect of higher supply chain and fuel costs on outbound transportation. Adjusted SGA is expected to delever slightly as the benefits of leverage are more than offset by increased marketing investment and increased store labor due to the timing of physical inventory counts.
Net interest income is expected to be approximately $8 million for the second quarter and the effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 25%. Adjusted net income is expected to be $68 million at the midpoint or an increase of 52% versus Q2 last year. Adjusted diluted earnings per share at the midpoint is expected to be $1.23 compared to $0.81 last year for the full year. Our guidance for sales reflects the outperformance we delivered in the first quarter and the improved sales outlook for the second quarter.
We expect operating margin expansion to be driven by gross margins with SGA rate of sale now expected to be flat to 2025. Full year sales are expected to be in the range of 5.4 to $5.48 billion, an increase of 14% at the midpoint versus last year and comparable sales growth is expected to be between 6 and 8% or nearly 20% growth at the midpoint on a two year stack basis. Adjusted operating margin is expected to increase 170 basis points to 11.6% at the midpoint driven by gross margin expansion versus our prior guidance.
The operating profit flow through from the increase in sales and is partially being offset by higher incentive costs. We’ve largely mitigated higher operating costs across the supply chain including fuel related headwinds primarily through the lower tariff rates and increased efficiencies in our distribution centers. We expect net interest income of approximately $31 million and a full year effective tax rate of approximately 25%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share is expected to be $8.85 at the midpoint on 55.7 million shares outstanding or growth of 33% versus 2025.
Capital expenditures are still expected to be between 230 and $250 million excluding the impact of tenant allowances which reflects approximately 150 net new store openings and increased investments in technology infrastructure. In summary, we’re very pleased with the performance of the business. We remain focused on executing at a high level and continuing to deliver on our top and bottom line growth strategies. With that, I’ll hand the call back over to the operator to start the Q and A session.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question you may press Star than one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, Please press star then 2. Please limit yourself to one question and if you have further questions you may re enter the question queue and at this time we will take our first question and that will come from John Heinbuchel with Guggenheim. Please go ahead.
John Heinbuchel (Equity Analyst)
Hey Winnie, can you talk to. The results you’re seeing are obviously incredibly strong, particularly as it relates to traffic. Can you talk to brand awareness and then maybe brand awareness around certain elements of your go forward strategy and the degree to which you’re acquiring new customers because it would appear that you’re acquiring them at a much more rapid pace than even you had six months ago. Thank you.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks John. Thanks for your question. A really good one. We actually did see really, really great lift this quarter out of transactions driven by traffic and actually nice double digit growth both in new customers as well as retained. And I think we’re actually in the early innings with marketing and growing our awareness. Our awareness still remains both aided and unaided, remains pretty low relative to our competitors.
So we’ve just started this journey. I think what we’re very pleased with is the fact that we’re making good strides and it was really a switch in our marketing strategy, moving from more traditional marketing and directing our media spend into social.
Coupled with that, we have really tried to build our customer database and to ensure that our stores are capturing customer emails because that just makes us that much more effective both in driving the appropriate media messages to our customers but also hopefully growing a lifetime relationship with them and eventually being able to personalize our reach outs to them. But traffic has been tremendous and we certainly had a nice lift.
Our traffic resonate, our messaging resonated with our customers in social and it was across Valentine’s Easter our health and fitness trends which focus on Pilates all the way through to squishy things and squish dumplings. So really pleased with the initial results we’ve seen. Thanks John.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Matthew Boss with JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Matthew Boss (Equity Analyst)
Great. Thanks and congrats on another nice quarter. So two questions. Winnie, with four straight quarters now of double digit comps, could you touch on foundational changes you’ve made which you think provides confidence to comp the comp? I guess how best to think about merchandise opportunity remaining across your worlds today and can you just touch on the momentum that you’ve seen continue so far in May?
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks so much for the question Matthew, and it’s a really, really good one. We feel really good about the strategy we put in place and what we think is a lot of dry powder in order to go after continued growth of the top line. I have a simple saying around here at the office and it’s sales solve problems and I’m a tried and true merchant and I’m incredibly excited about the momentum I see in the business but also what our merchants have brought to the table.
We have taken what used to be a very item focused merchandising approach to really an assortment merchandising approach, looking across assortments, targeting our core customers and really thinking through how do we tell stories around the product. And I think it’s the combination of that process, product storytelling, being maniacal about continuing to refresh the product lines because that is what our customers are voting for. And then also making sure that we’ve got compelling value.
The majority of our assortment, you know, over 80% is still $5 and below. We did switch to simplified pricing and those whole price points are much easier to shop. Frankly, it’s a lot easier to merchandise too. As well. As we look at price points above $5, we’ve seen really great resonance because we packed so much anything that’s above 5. We also abolished the buy beyond section. Move that product in line, and we’ve actually seen that product perform better because it’s basically merchandise, the way the customer wants to shop the product.
If you have a $35 gilt floor mirror, it’s in the room section and not tucked away in the back of the store. So all of those changes have made a real difference. We also, in terms of store execution, we’re very, very focused on these sex curtain up moments. And what it has done is galvanized the organization to work together to make sure we’ve got the right product at the right place at the right time in stock levels are good and that our stores are educated about the product stories that they’re going to be hosting for all of our customers.
So all of that has been foundational work. We have ways to go early innings in terms of what more we can do, both in terms of marketing via database, via social, and then in terms of merchandising. It’s specific to your question. I am really excited about the newness that I see and the opportunities we have in every single world. We had outsized growth this quarter in terms of toys, collectibles and games, but I also see so many green shoots and so much strength across the assortment, from beauty to fashion and very, very strong food and candy business that continues to be a cornerstone for us at 5 below.
So a lot ahead of us. And I think the big thing with my coming here, we’ve unleashed the merchants and the vendors really do love us and we’ve worked very hard to diversify that vendor base. So I think we’ve got a lot ahead of us in terms of growth and I feel very confident about our ability to comp. Thanks so much, Matt.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Michael Lasser with ubs. Please go ahead.
Michael Lasser (Equity Analyst)
Good evening. Thank you so much for taking my question. A. Is there a way that you can quantify some of the unique contributions to the comp from things like squish dumplings or Pokemon that may be more trend related and not necessarily continue for an extended period of time.
And B could you break down some of the unique costs that you are experiencing today such that if the market were to assume you comp flat as you anniversary some of these strong growth rates, we can get a baseline of what five below’s earnings outlook would be, even a more conservative scenario as you get into 2027. Thank you so much.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks for the question, Michael and I’ll kick off and talk about quantifying the comp for Q1. I would character our strategy at work the flywheel operating model, great product, great value, stores that look great, are fun to shop, easier to shop, as well as our ability to really engage with customers via social media. I would quantify that as being high single digits in terms of kind of run rate and what we’re seeing.
In addition to that, we had a quarter where we enjoyed the benefit of higher tax refunds that the customer spent with us. That was terrific. The final thing is, you know, everyone’s been talking about the squishy dumpling and what’s really interesting to me about this particular trend because we’ve always had cyclical trends in the business that come in and out is not the what but the how.
And I think that the big driver of how this trend went from zero to hero was one our doing a lot of social listening, seeing what was popping, two amplifying, reposting and then engaging with customers and then three really thinking through not just a dumpling but a full assortment of squishy things. And that has driven some really nice traffic. And we’re going to continue to use that mental model to drive traffic in the future.
And we’re constantly looking at what next trend can we amplify. The good thing about our business today, however, is that again we’ve got an assortment business. Every world is working very well and comp positively and we continue to drive what new ideas are out there in every single world and then how can we talk and engage with our customers about it? That is really a new tool for us. And then I’ll let Dan speak to Kaas.
Dan Sullivan (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)
Yeah. Hey Michael, thanks for the question. I would probably highlight two topics to your question on the cost profile. One is clearly transitory and that is around the supply chain and in particular the rising cost of fuel and the rising cost of diesel fuel per gallon. We’ve sized that for the year 20 to 25 basis points of an increase.
Important to note though, within our outlook for the year, we have fully offset those costs through a combination of better tariff cost flow through and better productivity and efficiency across our distribution centers. But that’s clearly, to your point, one of the outliers, and then I think the second one that I would highlight, which is absolutely intentional, is around the marketing investments that we are making.
Winnie has described so much of the incredible outcomes that we are seeing and that’s coming from our stated desire to really feed this capability. It’s about a 20 to 25 basis point, year over year increase this year. The beauty of that is we’re seeing terrific returns and if we get to a place in whatever circumstance, hypothetically where we are in a more challenged environment, we would obviously be able to pull that back as well.
So hopefully that answers your question.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from David Belanger with Mizuho. Please go ahead.
David Belanger (Equity Analyst)
Hey everyone, thank you for the questions. I want to ask about the trading card category, something that’s very on trend right now. Is that an opportunity to chase production? And can you talk about any conversations you’ve had with larger brands or manufacturers to get even more allocation across the store base? Thank you,
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
David. Trading cards are a great business driver for us and we were really happy with the results of our national Pokemon Day and we are definitely looking at further opportunities to chase Pokemon. But other trading cards, that is actually one of the trends that has a more enduring effect.
And what I’m also seeing is that we’re just looking at what does that mean beyond just the trading cards and looking at the impact of anime collectibles in growing those assortments accordingly as well. So it’s something that we are looking at very carefully and having daily discussions about increasing supply. Thanks so much for your question.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Edward Kelly with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Edward Kelly (Equity Analyst)
Yeah, hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question and congrats on really amazing results. Dan, you mentioned in your prepared remarks around the outlook just about a bit more caution, I guess, on the macro and the consumer. Could you just maybe give a little more color around why that’s worked its way into some sort of like your way of thinking? Is it anything that you’re seeing in the business yourself currently?
And then as it pertains to all this and the outlook for the back half, because that hasn’t changed. Can you just maybe talk about some of the things you might be excited about for the holiday period as it pertains to how you’re thinking about the back half. Yeah, absolutely. Look, I think there’s a couple of things here within the business that are worth commenting on. One, and you’ve heard Winnie unpack the Q1 results.
We are incredibly, incredibly pleased and confident with the results that our strategy is delivering in terms of sustainable growth. We’re 4/4 now of double digit growth and 5/4 of comp growth and that’s a great reflection of the execution of this strategy.
I think as we look forward from here and we talked about it in our last call, we are certainly cognizant of the fact that we are cycling stronger year over year performance in the quarter we’re in, let alone the back half of the year. And that factored into our thinking as well.
I mean half two of this year will be cycling 15% comp growth from a year ago and we’ll be doing it having fully anniversary the pricing activities that we initiated a year ago. And so as we thought about that, we see an incredibly healthy business that is absolutely delivering durable growth. We see a more challenging back half of the year simply based on what we will cycle.
And then that leads to the point of your question, which is the environment in which we’re operating. And I would say here we’re being cautious and we’re looking at the environment. We’re looking at the world that our customers are living in with rising fuel costs, with very sticky inflation, with a somewhat soft labor market.
And we think a piece of that pain that they are feeling wasn’t felt in the first quarter purely because of tax proceeds year over year that were significantly up. And so I think you have to look at all three of those together. We don’t have data that would suggest there’s trade down happening. We don’t have data that would suggest there’s been a shift in behavior. That’s certainly not what we’re saying.
But I do think we transparently have to look at the environment we’re operating in and the world our customers are living in in the reality of some of the points that I made. So that’s how we shaped it and thought about both the near term and the back half of the year. Winnie, I’ll let you talk about what you’re excited about.
Dan Sullivan (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)
And Edward, I would also add to Dan’s comment to say that as he mentioned, we actually have seen growth across all of our income cohorts. And I think the beauty of our model is we have a very unique value proposition that’s pretty much one of one.
We are a brand that is delivering a specialty experience for kids and doing it at extreme value and the notion that the price of entry is a buck is something that we think is going to really help us gain market share as we move through the quarters and should the customer feel more pressure with that in holiday it’s very interesting being part of the five below team because one characteristic is that no one’s ever satisfied and with the great holiday results that we posted last year, we walked away hindsighting 15 or 16 things we could be doing better.
There are certainly things we executed really well and I would say from a product ammunition point of view, we were still light in certain areas because of tariffs and I think we believe we can buy back into those categories so there will be additional goodness that we couldn’t necessarily afford last year.
The other piece of this is that like I said earlier, the product storytelling and bringing together really fulsome product stories that engage with the customers at the beginning of the holiday season, ending with an amazing stocking stuffer type of event. We’ve got a lot going and our job is to pull it together to make sure that it’s curated and that we’re messaging it correctly. So we’re actually quite excited.
We think we’ve got a lot of really great dry powder for the season. Thank you.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Scott Ciccarelli with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
Scott Ciccarelli
Good afternoon, guys. Dan, I think that last call you used the phrase we’re seeing what you’re seeing in terms of your sales growth versus maybe what some of the 3P services would have suggested given that context. It appears your 2Q guide is below, I think, what we’re seeing from the outside.
So given the magnitude of outperformance in 1Q and what we at least believe is a higher current run rate, are you actually expecting a slowdown in the back part of the quarter or is it more of that kind of cushion for the macro dynamics that you were earlier referencing? Thank you. Yeah, no, of course. Look, let me spend a minute on how we thought about the second quarter.
I’m not going to get into necessarily the specifics of the quarter of where we are, but I’m happy to put some color to it and connect it to how we built the outlook. I’ll start by saying we’re certainly pleased with the start to the quarter. The team has executed at a very, very high level and you’ve had some interesting holiday moments, whether they be Mother’s Day or grad or early summer that certainly we’re excited about and we’ve seen good results.
So from that standpoint, off to a good start. You know, the quarter, the way the quarter shapes though May is the smallest of the three months. June and July is where the heavy lift is. We have a lot of work left to do here as we get deeper into summer, the heart of grad, Father’s Day, 4th of July, etc. And so, you know, we’ve got a long way ahead of us here in terms of the quarter.
As a reminder at this moment we’ve almost entirely cycled the pricing actions of a year ago. And so for the back half of the quarter and rest of the year we will have fully anniversary that. And so look all in all, again we’re pleased with the start of it. We’re about halfway through it. We have a lot of a lot to do for sure. And look, while I’m on the quarter, let me just comment for a second on the squishy event that took place in mid May.
Look, you heard Winnie describe it in her prepared remarks. It was an absolutely amazing, amazing program. Cultural zeitgeist is what we’ve called it. And I think that’s the right way to describe it. We saw tremendous response from customers and really brilliant, flawless execution from our team.
And so if you look at that event through the lens of the five below brand, how we engage customers, create a unique retail moment and ultimately execute terrific on absolutely all accounts I would caution against the notion of this event being a meaningful catalyst to the comp profile for the quarter that we’ve built. Right. It’s a one day event essentially of one item with intentionally constrained supply.
And so I want to just sort of make clear for everyone it was an absolutely terrific event that was not designed to be a meaningful catalyst to the comp profile for the quarter. So hopefully that gives you a bit of color of how we thought about it.
Dan Sullivan (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)
And I would say the last thing is just price and the role of price because I think Dan mentioned this, but pricing impacts a little bit of Q2. But then we will have anniversary at it for the second half of Q2.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
The next question will come from Zehan Ma with Bernstein. Please go ahead.
OPERATOR
Hi. Thank you. I wanted to ask about the traffic versus ticket dynamic with the great traffic result that you guys achieved in Q1. I’m assuming part of that is linked to Squishy. Wondering if there’s additional color you can provide there. Meanwhile, ticket growth did seem to have decelerated somewhat despite in Q1. I’m assuming you still had some tariff driven price increases in there.
So with upt down, are people buying smaller baskets and how do we see the balance for the rest of the year? Thank you. So for the first quarter, Jihan, you hit the nail on the head. Pretty much. So the traffic, we had a couple of things going on. We saw really nice increases. We did see nice increases that were generated by all the marketing actions we took to amplify the swish trend.
And with that trend, we did drive footsteps that cross the threshold and those baskets typically are smaller than the broader baskets. And that kind of explains why you see ticket not being quite as high or equally as high as other quarters. So that’s effectively it. With that said, one of the things that we’re seeing, we continue to see is nice traffic lift and it really is.
We think our marketing strategy is working and our ability to be agile, to really think about what’s happening, reflect on those trends, react very quickly and drive footsteps across the threshold. So all good stuff. But we did see a nice benefit and a smaller basket in the quarter because of the squish trend.
Simeon Gutman (Equity Analyst)
The next question will come from Simeon Gutman with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Hey everyone, first question. New space productivity was outstanding. I assume part of it is how strong the core comp is. So you’re opening stores with product and trend you probably didn’t have in the base. So how to think about it if there’s any change or things that you’re doing on your side outside of the strong comp. And then Dan, just to paraphrase, you left back half unchanged but you’re not seeing anything different about the consumer.
And some of the cost things that you cited, it sounds like they’re mostly or fully offset other than increase in marketing. Thanks. Yeah, Simeon, so thanks for the questions there on new store productivity. Of course you’re right. When you see widespread growth like this comp growth, you’re going to see the step up in productivity. And of course that’s what we’re seeing.
I do think it’s worth highlighting we are seeing outsized performance in our 2025 and 2026 classes of stores, which directly feeds back to the strategy that we’ve put in place, which is we want to be incredibly good. From site selection to pre opening to grand opening to post opening. We’ve intentionally shifted our approach here. It’s about quality of properties and locations, not just quantity.
We still are committed to the high single digit unit growth profile, but we want to do it in a really, really compelling way. And I think that’s a piece of what you’re seeing here as well. And then yes, I think the way that you described it is right. I think, you know, we haven’t changed our back of year outlook.
We had contemplated when we spoke three months ago that we were expecting a bit of a choppy environment with our consumer and a challenging macro environment. And that’s certainly what we’ve seen play out. And I would say that has accelerated recently in the world we’re operating in.
I would point out though that holding our comps outlook consistent for the half two reflects an incredible confidence and belief in how we are running this business and delivering results while also acknowledging that it is a challenging environment right now for consumers. And so we want to be thoughtful about that, we want to be balanced about that which we think is the appropriate stance given the operating environment.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Robbie Holmes with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Robbie Holmes (Equity Analyst)
Oh, hey, congrats and thanks for taking my question. My question is how much of online growth was a driver in the first quarter and how do you see going forward and you know, was digital a bigger contributor than expected, you know, in the, in the first quarter and is that because of the squishy trend and you know, just how do we think about that momentum continuing for the rest of the year
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
online growth? Thanks so much for the question, Robbie. We did see some nice growth online, but it’s still very small percentage to the total business. And again, this is another white space opportunity as we move forward and really think about this connected customer journey and the role of Omni Channel.
We are seeing nice pickup but it’s still a small percentage really where we at have leveraged online is the social media and influencer creator marketing that we put out there. It really points most customers directly to the site which becomes kind of a window to five below and drives then the traffic into the stores. But again, potential white space opportunity for us in the future. Thank you.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Chuck Grom with Gordon Haskett. Please go ahead.
Chuck Grom (Equity Analyst)
Hey, thanks a lot Winnie. On the outside looking in, it’s sometimes hard to contextualize the marketing upside. So could you perhaps size up what’s worked well so far? What’s next as you leverage loyalty and more influencers to modernize the social spend? And can you touch on the email database that you’re building out, I guess where that stands say relative to say a year ago?
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Chuck, thanks for the questions. So I’m going to actually start with the marketing spend. It’s really interesting. We just started on this journey with social last year. And so I think, you know, first steps was just trying on different types of content, both creator content, you know, boosting ugc. And what has really, really helped us is that we have a lot of stories to tell.
The marketing and merchandising teams work really closely together pretty much from the inception of the line, and they start thinking through what would really hit. The second piece of social, though, that we’ve really enjoyed is social listening and just paying attention to what our customers are talking about and then being able to really lean into those trends.
And we see it not just in the squish phenomenon, but we also see it in our food world, with candy and even with what’s happening with our beauty programs and beauty dupes. So. So those are new muscles that we’re just beginning to really take advantage of. We also have seen a nice pickup in terms of customer growth through connected tv.
And here I mentioned that we are doing more AI, more AI generated content that just allows us to be fast, nimble, but also really use our imagination and touch kids. And really in terms of the channels they’re looking at, like YouTube, the customer file is beginning to grow.
And we are in very early stages, but we are seeing that the value of those customers in our file are growing pretty much not geometric, pretty much geometrically as we go quarter in, quarter out. So the key to this is how do we get more customers, capture more at the till, but then also start to really think through what loyalty could look like for five below. And what we’re working on is, is it going to be through the app?
Is it reward points for spending and visits? We think that our customers will actually really enjoy being first in terms of knowing about new releases and new products. So there’s a lot more to explore there. And again, we’re early stages in that journey, but excited about what we’ve seen so far.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Michael Montani with Evercore isi. Please go ahead.
Michael Montani (Equity Analyst)
Yes, hi. Thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to ask for a moment about the IPA tariff rebates. We were basically coming to about 150 basis points of potential tailwind from that which assumed about 85, 90% import, and then about 30, 35 foreign direct import. Just wondering if you guys would comment at all on that. And then also you had mentioned the 10% tariff rate coming back into play. That could go up to where it was last year pre IPA.
We had that at like 18 to 20%. So I’m just curious if you’d be willing to comment at all on how you see that margin in play playing out? Yeah, Michael, happy to do so. Look, on the IPA tariffs, we’ve not publicly sized or quantified that and I’m certainly not going to do that here. What I would say is we’ve taken all the appropriate steps to secure the claims and avail ourselves to these claims.
And so from, from an administrative perspective, I think we’re in very good standing here towards the refunds. Now, of course, the if and the when to that conversation is still to be determined, but we’ve done all the right things that we need to do do on the broader tariff discussion. Just to be completely clear, what we have assumed for the back half of the year is tariff rates that return to levels that they were at at the start of our fiscal year.
Certainly what’s been in the news the last couple of days would tell us that’s probably a pretty good assumption how the administration intends to get back to this some way likely through Section 301 tariffs. So we, we think we’re in a good position there. What we have updated in our, in our outlook at this point is we have flowed through the benefit of lower tariffs that we have experienced over the 150 day period that will end in late July.
You know, so it is an incredibly fluid and complicated topic. We have resisted the temptation to quantify every element of it because I think for us, we want to just make sure that we’re being clear with how we thought about it and what we’ve included in our outlook or not. This has a lot to play out as we work through the year.
Dan Sullivan (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)
The next question will come from Brad Thomas with Keybanc Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
OPERATOR
Hi. Thank you. Congrats on the momentum. I wanted to ask about the strong customer traffic that you’ve had over the last year. Wondering if you’ve looked at or could share with us any insights into what kind of repeat visits you’re seeing from new customers that are coming in.
And then as we think about a world where perhaps tariffs are more benign, curious if there are any investments in price on the more favorable side for the customer that you may be considering should the savings stay in place. Thank you
Brad Thomas (Equity Analyst)
for your question, Brad. On the repeat from new customers, we are seeing a nice growth from repeat from new customers and we’ve seen double digit growth both in terms of repeat as well as new customer acquisition. So really nice results thus far and more to do. Again, early innings on this one in terms of price. It’s a great question. Last Year we really made a move to simplify prices and to round everything up and down to whole price points.
And our customers responded very favorably to that move. It’s a much easier shopping experience, much easier for our crew as well. With that, we kept the majority of our prices at 5 below and we made sure to invest in the 5 and above and make sure that we had great relative value. The final thing was we got rid of five beyond and put those products back in line. Those two things gave us a real insight into how customers respond to price.
And we have not seen resistance on prices above $5 if we can pack enough relative value. So we feel good about the strategy we’ve got and the customers have definitely voted for it, both in terms of a lot offer at 5 and below. But again, at 5 and beyond, they have responded very favorably to the value we’ve packed into those products. So we feel good about the trajectory we’ve got and are sticking to this game plan for now. Thank you.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
The next question will come from Anthony Chikumba with Loop Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
OPERATOR
Let me add my congratulations on another blockbuster quarter. And I’m not going to make a joke, so I can actually get my question in this quarter. So based on your, I mean, you have a debt free balance sheet right between your cash and short term investments called a billion one and kind of based on where your stock is in the aftermarket, you know, looking at a kind of a classic, you know, buy the rumor, sell the news.
It’s about your cash is about 10% of your current market cap. I guess my question is, you know, how do you think about potential returns to shareholders given the fact that you’re in this very advantaged position? Thank you. Yeah. Hey, Anthony, thanks so much for the question. Look, we continue to deploy capital primarily in support of our growth strategies. That’s been our stance. And here we continue to see outsized returns on these investments.
So for us, we’re super excited about that. You’re right, by the way, though we’re certainly doing this from a position of strength. Liquidity, health of balance sheet is spot on and we’re super proud of that. And the optionality that gets us as well. I see that personally as a real competitive advantage for us, especially in an increasingly challenging macro environment now. So in the near term, I think that’s unlikely to change.
Having said that, I fully appreciate the question. And as we move forward, we will continue to reevaluate here and consider opportunities to optimize returns on excess capital, to consider alternatives and potentially deploy capital differently.
Probably, you know, not at this moment because we remain in growth mode and really wanting to feed this outsized growth platform that we think we can deliver, but certainly something that we’re looking at and over time we’ll continue to evaluate.
Anthony Chikumba (Equity Analyst)
The next question will come from Brian Nagel with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.
Dan Sullivan (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)
Hey, good afternoon. Great, great quarter. Congratulations. So the question I want to ask you mentioned a few times here is the benefit of outsized tax refunds in Q1. So as you look at the quarter was there, did the tax refund benefit, did it change the shape of that quarter And I guess you know how if there was a, if there was a unique driver, so to say is something else taken over? So as we push into Q2 with the sales momentum persisting.
Yeah, Brian. No, I mean look, the tax refund year over year impact was in absolute dollar size of returns year over year was the phasing and the timing of those returns didn’t necessarily change. And so like everyone else that money was sort of put back in the consumers hands and in late February and then played itself largely over the next few weeks. And then a bit, you know, there’s always a bit of a tail towards this.
So no, I think the short answer is particularly in a year over year, did it, did it meaningfully reshape the quarter for us or was it a specific driver And a specific. The answer would be no. It’s helpful. Thank you.
Brian Nagel (Equity Analyst)
The next question will come from Kate McShane with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Dan Sullivan (Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer)
Hi, good afternoon. Thanks for taking your question. It sounded like Winnie in your comments that beauty and fashion might be a little bit behind the other categories just in terms of performance. And we were wondering if you would say some of those assortment changes are behind that and if so, what can we expect to see out of these categories over the next couple of quarters. Kate, thanks so much for your question. Actually, I’m so sorry.
Beauty and fashion performed well and we’re actually seeing a nice resonance across our assortments when we speak to 15 out of 18 departments. The majority of the departments there are a few departments that did not comp positively because we have strategically downsized them and downtrended them. So that’s really what’s happening.
I do think there’s more opportunity in but fashion especially as customers may select to trade down and look differently at where they purchase. And so we feel very good about the business and the go forward on both fronts. Thanks, Kate.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Spencer Hanis with Wolf Research, please go ahead.
Kate McShane (Equity Analyst)
Thanks for the question. I’m just curious how much Runway you think you have to continue to shift the mix to higher aur products over time just as you try to mechanically cycle some of these tough comps, if the underlying rate here is a high single digit comp. And then just on the success of this dumpling event in the quarter, do you see an opportunity to run that playbook across other products and categories over time here as well?
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks, Spencer. I’m going to start with a dumpling question because I think it’s a really good one. I think the playbook is really what we walked away with and the how how we did it, not necessarily how many dumplings do we sell? And it’s certainly something that we want to leverage and activate Again.
There is something about social listening amplification getting really in the midst of a viral trend and then fueling it and having an event that in stores was really compelling. Customers, including parents, walked away really happy with the event and thought it was pure retailtainment. So those are things that we definitely would like to replicate and use again when appropriate.
We are constantly looking for the next new, both from the vendor community, but also with the customers. What are they talking about, what’s going viral today and how do we engage with them. And then in terms of price, we have more room to explore price and looking at a strategic lever for growth in the future.
With that said, where I think we’ve really won is again, cost of entry, being a buck, offering this amazing specialty retail experience and having the majority of our product at very accessible price points. I like to say that we make the aspirational accessible and that is our main aim.
What our moves in price did for us last year is it allowed us to explore price points that didn’t go from $5 all the way up to $25, but what’s great value at 10 and 15 and it opened up our ability to allow more interesting merchandise into the assortments that we maybe wouldn’t have looked at in years past. So definitely more opportunity.
But again we are going to stick with our guns in terms of delivering great relative value and making again aspirational accessible. Thank you.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Joe Feldman with Telsey Advisory Group. Please go ahead.
Spencer Hanis (Equity Analyst)
Yeah, thanks for taking the question guys and congrats on the quarter. I wanted to follow up and it’s been asked a little bit about how are you guys driving the trends? Like, you know, are you. It sounds like you’re getting better at monitoring trend activity Social media, like, are you, are the buyers maybe leveraging new tools like AI to help ingest a lot more information about what trends are?
Or is it that you guys are actually creating a trend and pushing it through social media that then spurs people into the stores? And I just hoping you could share a little more color on that. Thanks.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
It’s a great question, Joe. I would say that a couple things happened and it really started to take hold last year when I joined being a merchant. I saw the tremendous opportunity and talent we had with our teams and we literally unleashed them. We said go forth and find great things.
And with tariffs, it also pushed us to diversify our vendor base and look further and really explore the markets and see what was out there, both domestically as well as abroad. And so I think that part of this is the funnel has broadened and we have more product and more trend ideas going through the funnel then with our switch to social media.
Naturally, when you switch your media buys into social, you’re much more engaged in what’s happening in social media. And I would say that our teams were always kind of looking at it, but now we’re really studying it and it’s really great because I would say social trends have picked up and amplified even faster in the past year and you can do that across everything from like food to room decor to fashion and beauty and toys.
And so that’s been amazing to have our attention and our curiosity really piqued by what’s out there. And instead of waiting for the next cycle, we chase it. And our ability to chase, go after things, try to be first to market or a fast follower is at the heart of what our buying teams do. I also think there’s a lot more opportunity in terms of leveraging AI and trend detection and we’re excited to keep exploring those options.
The last thing I will say is I would love to say that we created the dumpling trend. The dumpling trend is something that we’ve. It’s an item in our assortment for about five years. We started seeing it pop up in social. What we did was amplify what was becoming hot. That is a special skill and I do think we can use it to then create trends on a go forward basis. So lots in our toolkit that we’re developing this year and that we can apply to future.
Thanks for the question, Joe.
OPERATOR
The next question will come from Randy Koenick with Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Joe Feldman (Equity Analyst)
Yeah, thanks a lot and good evening everybody. I just want to go back to this, the squish or the dumpling impact on the business. I think you said that it negatively impacted basket size. Yeah, but, you know, you’re talking to this idea that, you know, there’s a lot of breadth in the business, which, which kind of makes sense.
So, you know, do you think that, you know, when you look at, let’s say, if you hindsight the company and think about years past, fidget centers and other things that kind of positively impacted the business in the past, can you kind of give us some perspective of how you looked at how the business kind of performed on, let’s say, a trend like that in a big way in the past, let’s say 10 years or whatever it was, and how you kind of see that as different today and how you’re getting more attachment in the business versus maybe you didn’t in the past.
I’m just curious if you’ve done that hindsighting and looked at a prior trend that was huge back in the day and looked at it now, it’s different today versus the past. That’d be super helpful in how you’ve seen that and how you think about that going forward. Thanks, guys.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Yeah, it’s a great question, Randy. I think what our teams have done in terms of analyzing the trend and the trends of the past is pretty remarkable. We’ve got a lot of data and we’ve got a lot of different through lines on trends of the past. We have fidgets, spinners, rainbow looms, or squishmallows. So we have modeled out those curves to see what demand look like and when did they peak and when did they climb down.
We’ve looked at seasonality of trends. I think what was unique about the squish dumpling trend is one, it is bigger and hotter than the other trends. And I think in part because of social media, the exposure of this trend on social and engagement by the community has been tremendous. And the virality of that trend has made the demand peak in a very, very consistent and high way.
And then for us, it was interesting just engaging in social media with creators and with our customers. The dumpling event was neat because we could tease the campaign in social. We could really get the news out, we could get the excitement out. And that again, is a skill and a toolkit that we’ll take away from it. With that said, we have worked very hard to try and build an assortment business that goes beyond a single trend and a single item.
And so I really see it as a portfolio. And portfolio management suggests that, like, we just need to make sure we’ve got lots of little trends and to listen to and perhaps amplify as we see these trends, you know, hit their peak and start to die down. The last thing I’ll say about Squish Dumplings is that what makes them unique was one, they’re rare. Number two, the element of surprise.
And so some of those ingredients and what makes it special are also ingredients. We’ll look forward in terms of new products that come to the line that we think are trend worthy. Hope that answers your question. Thanks, Randy.
OPERATOR
And that will conclude our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to miss Winnie park for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Winnie Park (Chief Executive Officer)
Thanks so much. As you’ve heard, we’re making really good progress in executing our customer centric strategy and we’re really excited for the rest of the year. I want to offer a huge thank you to the five Below crew who have poured so much hard work and heart into our brand. And I want to thank you all for joining us on this call today and I hope to see you in our stores this summer. Thanks so much.
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