Investopedia: Can Hanesbrands Leverage Successful Brands Into Better Financials?

There's not much debate about the quality of the brands that Hanesbrands (NYSE:HBI) owns. Names like Hanes, Champion and Playtex resonate with consumers, and when it comes to innerwear, a large percentage of shoppers stick with a single brand for decades at a time. This company has not always managed to convert that brand value into shareholder value, though the stock has rebounded sharply from the lows of 2009. Now the question is whether management can not only maintain the value of these brands, but also wring more expenses out of the operations and deleverage the business.

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Investopedia: HanesBrands May Soon Start Stretching Out Its Free Cash Flow

Innerware manufacturer HanesBrands (NYSE:HBI) has to contend with fierce competition, powerful retailers, and a balance sheet that is far less than ideal. Although apparel manufacturing is going to remain a tough business for the foreseeable future and HanesBrands doesn't look cheap by conventional metrics, investors who look no further than the P/E or EV/EBITDA ratios may miss an interesting free cash flow expansion story in its early stages.

A Tough Quarter  
For a variety of reasons, HanesBrands delivered another poor quarter. Sales were slightly negative, as the company had to deal with retailers clearing out cold weather inventories, aggressive competition in graphic tees and some turbulence with Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT). At the same time, higher cotton prices thumped margins (gross margin down more than a point) and operating income fell about 8%.

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Investopedia: Maidenform Pulled Out Of Shape

Players in the intimate apparel space, like Hanesbrands (NYSE: HBI) and Warnaco (NYSE: WRC), warned earlier this month that the market was not so strong, and data from retailers like J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) and Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) was likewise not encouraging. Even with that backdrop, though, Maidenform Brands (NYSE: MFB) surprised the Street with a very disappointing third quarter and some self-inflicted wounds only made matters worse.

A Poor Q3  
There's no value in sugar-coating what was a lousy report from Maidenform. Sales rose less than 2%, while sell side analysts had been expecting 11% growth, versus last year's quarter. Wholesale sales, the bulk of MFB's revenue base, rose just barely more than 1%, but the results were curiously mixed. Sales to mass merchants like Wal-mart (NYSE: WMT) and Target (NYSE: TGT) jumped 15%, but sales to department stores were down almost 1%. (To know more about buy side and sell side analysts, read: Buy Side Vs. Sell Side Analysts.)


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