Shares of Shoe Carnival Inc. rose nearly 1.5 percent in pre-market trading after posting solid first quarter report.

The shares were trading at $16.00 at 8:14 A.M after a first-quarter earnings report that showed improvement from year ago results, with a new strategic direction in hand following the return of Cliff Sifford in the CEO role. He returned to the company as interim president and CEO in late February following the exist of Mark Worden.

“Our review confirmed that the Shoe Carnival and Shoe Station banners each serve distinct consumer segments, and that the company is best positioned to operate both banners are permanent, independent components of our portfolio,” Sifford said in a statement.

Sifford acknowledged that “there’s more work to do,” but that first quarter results were also in line with consensus analyst expectations on the key financial metrics.

“The Shoe Carnival banner narrowed its year-over-year sales decline meaningfully compared to Fiscal 2025 trends,” the CEO said, adding that “we feel confident about growth opportunities for the Shoe Station banner” through new store growth and the rebannering of select Shoe Carnival doors to Shoe Station locations.

The shoe retailer ended the quarter debt-free, with merchandise inventories at $417.2 million, down $11.2 million from year-ago levels. Shoe Carnival said it expects inventory declines of $50 million to $65 million by the end of Fiscal 2026.

For the first quarter ended May 2, the net loss was $5.6 million, or 21 cents a diluted share, against net income of $9.3 million, or 34 cents, in the same year-ago period. On an adjusted basis, diluted earnings per share (EPS) were 23 cents. Net sales slipped 2.5 percent to $270.7 million from $277.7 million. The company said comparable store sales were down 2.1 percent.

Wall Street’s consensus per Yahoo Finance was adjusted diluted EPS of 23 cents on revenue of $267.3 million.

By banner, Shoe Carnival net sales were $177.3 million, representing 65 percent of total net sales and slipping 2.2 percent that included a comparable store net sales decrease of 1.7 percent. The company said this was an improvement compared to mid-to-high single digit quarterly declines throughout Fiscal 2025. At Shoe Station, net sales were $93.4 million, or 35 percent of total net sales and a 3.1 percent decline that included a comparable store net sales fall of 2.9 percent.

For fiscal 2026, the company guided net sales to the range of $1.13 billion to $1.15 billion, with adjusted EPS between $1.40 to $1.60.