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A rare swing and miss from Under Armour in 4Q; shares plunge

Associated Press

Under Armour, typically a star on earnings day, suffered a rare miss in the fourth quarter, sending shares plunging 25 percent before the opening bell Tuesday.

The company's extended streak of soaring revenue growth going back years rose 12 percent, just over half what the Baltimore company has established as its norm.

The slowing revenue dragged down Under Armour's chief rival, Nike. Its shares slid 2.5 percent.

The sports clothing and footwear company also announced the resignation of Chief Financial Officer Chip Molloy and released a conservative revenue outlook for this year.

Under Armour said that CFO Malloy is stepping down from his post due to personal reasons. David Bergman, senior vice president of corporate finance, will serve as acting CFO starting on Friday. Molloy will help with the transition process.

For the period ended Dec. 31, Under Armour Inc. earned $104.9 million, or 23 cents per share. A year ago the company earned $105.6 million, or 24 cents per share.

Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were calling for earnings of 25 cents per share.

Selling, general and administrative expenses rose to $419.8 million from $384.1 million as the chain continued to invest in its high growth businesses such as footwear, international and direct-to-consumer.

Revenue increased to $1.31 billion from $1.17 billion, but fell short of the $1.41 billion in revenue that analysts polled by Zacks expected.

North American revenue climbed 6 percent, while international revenue surged 55 percent on significant growth in the U.K., Germany, China and Australia.

Footwear revenue climbed 36 percent on faster growth in the running and basketball categories. Clothing revenue rose 7 percent on strength in the golf and basketball categories. Accessories revenue also climbed 7 percent, helped by strength in bags and headwear.

Going forward, Under Armour foresees its 2017 revenue growing 11 percent to 12 percent to almost reach $5.4 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet predict revenue of $6.06 billion.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on UAA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/UAA

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Keywords: Under Armour, Earnings Report