CaratSignet comps rise 2.2% as total sales fall 0.5%
53 stores closed and 5 opened since year-end, leaving 2,534 open. Adjusted earnings guidance rises to $10.45 to $12.15 a share from $9.20 to $11.00.
Comps up, sales down. Signet's same store sales rose 2.2% in the 13 weeks to 1 August while total sales fell 0.5% to $1,528.1 million, and the company raised its full-year earnings guidance.
If you supply Signet: the chain is 48 stores smaller than at year-end, on comps that are growing.
If you price bridal: average unit retail rose about 6%, in both bridal and fashion.
What this is not: a sales recovery. The chain sold less in total than a year earlier.
| Measure | Q2 FY27 | Q2 FY26 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | $1,528.1m | $1,535.1m | −$7.0m, −0.5% |
| Same store sales | +2.2% | +2.4% | −0.2 points |
| Operating income | $87.5m | $2.8m | +$84.7m |
| Operating margin | 5.7% | 0.2% | +5.5 points |
| Diluted EPS | $1.33 | −$0.22 | +$1.55 |
| Adjusted diluted EPS | $2.19 | $1.61 | +$0.58, +36.0% |
IFifty-three stores came out
Comps without the count. Signet closed 53 stores and opened 5 since year-end Fiscal 2026, leaving 2,534 open at 1 August. Same store sales rose 2.2% across the ones that stayed.
Space shrank 1.1%. Selling space fell 1.1% to 4.0 million square feet on the same comparison. North America took 50 of the 53 closures.
IIThe guidance moved, sales did not
Earnings up, revenue flat. Adjusted diluted EPS guidance rises to $10.45 to $12.15 from $9.20 to $11.00. The full-year sales range is unchanged at $6.7 to $6.9 billion.
Eleven point nine percent. The new midpoint of $11.30 sits 11.9% above the old $10.10, and the company intends a $125 million accelerated repurchase this month.
IIITariff refunds carried the margin
Fifteen million back. Gross margin was 39.4% of sales, up 80 basis points, helped by about $15 million of refunds for tariffs previously paid.
Gold pushed back. The company names higher gold costs as an offset inside that same margin. Adjusted diluted EPS came to $2.19, from $1.61 a year earlier.
01What would change this call+
Third-quarter comps at the bottom of the range. Guidance allows −1.0%, and a negative comp on a store count already 48 lower would make this quarter's divergence a peak rather than a pattern.
02What same store sales measure+
Same store sales compare only locations trading in both periods, so openings and closures drop out. Signet includes e-commerce in the measure. A chain can therefore report rising same store sales and falling total sales at once: the shops still open are selling more, and there are fewer of them.
03Method · the desk’s arithmetic+
Every figure is Signet Jewelers' own, taken from Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K it filed on 9 September 2026, read at SEC EDGAR rather than through a wire summary. The quarter is the 13 weeks ended 1 August 2026, compared with the 13 weeks ended 2 August 2025. Store counts are the company's real-estate table: 2,582 at year-end Fiscal 2026, 5 openings, 53 closures, 2,534 at 1 August, of which North America moved 2,329 to 2,282. The 0.5% sales fall, the $84.7 million operating-income gain, the 36.0% rise in adjusted diluted EPS and the 11.9% guidance-midpoint increase are Carat Capital's arithmetic on those figures; the company itself describes the guidance raise as over 10%. Adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted diluted EPS are non-GAAP measures as the company defines them. Two executives are quoted in the release; neither is quoted here.
Signet gives Zales and Banter to a Mattel executive
Who Signet put in charge of the brands inside this comp number.
The trade, filed before the New York open.
Prices, tenders and the one story that moved the industry overnight. Ninety seconds.
Subscribe free →