Kate Spade Same-Store Sales Beat Estimates

Handbag maker Kate Spade & Co reported a higher-than-expected rise in quarterly same-store sales, helped by increased demand in North America.

The company's shares rose 6.3 percent in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Kate Spade has been focusing on its luxury brand kate spade new york and has been winding down its lower-margin Kate Spade Saturday and Jack Spade menswear brands.

It has also introduced quirky styles such as the Cat's Meow collection - handbags shaped like cats and mice. Analysts have said the new designs have found favor with customers.

Kate Spade's same-store sales, excluding e-commerce sales, rose 12 percent in the second quarter ended July 4. Analysts on average had expected a rise of 8.9 percent, according to research firm Consensus Metrix.

Sales in Kate Spade North America rose 13 percent to $236 million.

Net income was $8.5 million, or 7 cents per share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $4.4 million, or 3 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 5.7 percent to $281.1 million.

Excluding items, the company earned 8 cents per share.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 11 cents per share and revenue of $293 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Kate Spade's shares were trading at $21.70 before the bell on Wednesday. (Reporting by Sruthi Ramakrishnan and Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Don Sebastian and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)