“If sales perform in line with this plan, we expect earnings per share for 2024 to be in the range of $5.64 to $5.89 compared to $5.56 in fiscal 2023.”

In context

“osts and wages. Now let's discuss our outlook for fiscal 2024. As mentioned in our press release, we are encouraged by the sustained sales momentum that began in the second quarter of 2023 and continued through the holiday season. That said, there remains ongoing uncertainty in the macroeconomic and geopolitical environments. In addition, while inflation has moderated, prices for necessities like housing, food and gasoline remain elevated and continue to pressure the low to moderate income customers' discretionary spend. While we hope to do better, we believe it is prudent to continue to take a conservative approach to forecasting our business in 2024. For the 52 weeks ending February 1, 2025, we are planning comparable store sales to increase 2% to 3% on top of a solid 5% gain in 2023. If sales perform in line with this plan, we expect earnings per share for 2024 to be in the range of $5.64 to $5.89 compared to $5.56 in fiscal 2023. As a reminder, fiscal 2024 is a 52-week year compared to 53 weeks in 2023. As previously mentioned, our 2023 earnings per share benefited from an additional $0.20 of EPS from the extra week. Turning to our guidance assumptions for the 2024 year. Total sales are planned to grow by 2% to 4% for the 52 weeks ending February 1, 2025, versus the 53 weeks ended February 3, 2024. This year-over-year increase in total revenue is affected by last year's 53rd week, which added approximately $308 million to sales in the fourth quarter and fiscal year of 2023. If same-store sales perform in line with our plan, operating margin for the full year is expected to be in the range of 11.2% to 11.5% compared to 11.3% last year, which benefited by 25 basis points from the 53rd week. This year-over-year cha”