bath and body works  stock jumped more than 10 in premarket trading thursday after it beat fiscal first quarter earnings expectations and raised its guidance while sales and net income fell year over year the retailer is now expecting full year 2023 earnings per share to be between 270 and 310 compared to the range of 250 to 300 given during the previous quarter it expects adjusted earnings per share to be between 268 and 308 for the year the longtime mall shop known for its lotions hand sanitizers and soaps attributed the rosier guidance to betterthanexpected earnings and the impact of an early debt pay off in the first quarter we delivered first quarter sales in line with our expectations while our eps was better than anticipated as we saw benefits from our work to improve merchandise margin as well as early benefits from our cost optimization initiatives ceo gina boswell said in a statement the companys fiscal 2023 will include a 53rd week and the its outlook includes that additional week which it estimates will impact earnings by 7 cents per share the company added heres how bath and body works did in its first fiscal quarter compared with what wall street was anticipating based on a survey of analysts by refinitiv the companys net income for the threemonth period that ended april 29 was 81 million or 35 cents a share roughly half of the 155 million or 64 cents a share it reported in the yearago quarter sales dropped to 140 billion down 4 from 145 billion a year earlier the retailer expects earnings per share of 27 to 32 cents in the next quarter compared to an estimate of 32 cents a share it expects sales to decline in the low to mid single digits compared to an estimate of down 3 it reaffirmed its full year sales forecast of flat net sales to a midsingle digit decline as consumers become more cautious and retail discounts and promotions tick up against a tough macroeconomic backdrop bath and body works margins dropped they fell by about three and half percentage points to 427 compared to 461 in the year ago quarter its not clear why margins dropped but they were better than the 412 analysts had expected according to a research note from simeon siegel a retail analyst for bmo capital markets margins also topped above precovid levels siegel noted