Citi Trends, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTRN), a leading off-price value retailer of apparel, accessories and home trends primarily for African American families in the United States, today reported results for the third quarter ended November 1, 2025. For purposes of comparison, unless otherwise stated, metrics in this release are compared to the 13-week quarter and 39-week year-to-date period ended November 2, 2024.

Chief Executive Officer Comments

Ken Seipel, Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am pleased to report another quarter of strong results, reflecting disciplined execution and meaningful progress with our strategic transformation. Our third quarter comparable store sales growth of 10.8%, 16.5% on a two-year stack basis, represents our fifth consecutive quarter of positive comp performance, bringing our year-to-date comp to 10.0%, and 12.3% on a two-year stack basis. We’re experiencing broad-based momentum at Citi Trends, with sales growth spanning all store volume groups, geographies, and product categories, highlighting the comprehensive nature of our business improvement. Importantly, increased traffic is driving the majority of our sales growth.

We delivered a strong back-to-school season fueled by continued momentum in our Children’s, Mens and Basic apparel divisions. We continue to sharpen our product and value for our core customer, and in the quarter we saw strong response to elevated brands and fashion for the Fall, as well as strong response to early holiday assortments late in the quarter. As a result, our sales momentum has continued fourth quarter to date. I’m also excited to announce that this holiday season we are launching the rebranded Citi Trends “Joy Looks Good on You” campaign and updated social media presence under the “@wearecititrends” tagline.

Moving ahead, we remain committed to enhancing our operational processes and strengthening our capabilities as we work to capture the substantial growth opportunities before us. We have established a clear line of sight to achieve approximately $45 million of EBITDA* in fiscal 2027, which would represent a $60 million improvement from 2024 levels. While we’re in the early stages of what I believe will be a compelling transformation, we have built a definitive, actionable and internally controllable plan to accelerate shareholder value creation over the next few years.”

Financial Highlights – Third Quarter 2025

• Total sales of $197.1 million increased $18.0 million, or 10.1% vs. Q3 2024; comparable store sales increased 10.8% compared to Q3 2024 driven by increases in traffic, basket and conversion, reflecting the impact of the three-tiered merchandise assortment, including more trendy product, off-price deals and more branded extreme value product.

• Gross margin of 38.9%, consistent with internal operating plan, declined 90 basis points compared to Q3 2024. Q3 2025 included product margins consistent with first half ’25 performance and the pull-forward of freight expense from Q4 to balance holiday workload in the distribution centers. Prior year period results were positively impacted by low markdowns and shrink following last year’s Q2 strategic inventory reset, that ultimately jump started the Company’s top line turn-around.

• SG&A expense of $79.3 million, or $79.5 million as adjusted*, vs. Q3 2024 SG&A expense of $74.7 million, or $74.6 million as adjusted*, reflecting the costs to process higher sales and $3.2 million of incremental incentive compensation from improved financial performance. On a rate basis, adjusted SG&A expenses levered 130 basis points compared to Q3 2024.

• Net loss of $6.9 million, or adjusted net loss* of $7.1 million, vs. net loss of $7.2 million, or adjusted net loss* of $6.5 million in Q3 2024.

• Adjusted EBITDA* loss of $2.9 million vs. adjusted EBITDA* loss of $3.3 million in Q3 2024.

• Real Estate: Remodeled 24 stores and opened 3 stores in the quarter, ending the period with 593 locations.

• Cash of $51.1 million at quarter-end, with no debt and no borrowings under a $75 million credit facility.

• Merchandise inventory was $123.5 million at the end of the quarter, a decrease of 3.1% vs. Q3 2024, with average store inventory up 4.5% vs. last year, reflecting revised timing of pre-holiday product deliveries.

Financial Highlights – 39 weeks ended November 1, 2025

• Total sales of $589.6 million increased $47.7 million, or 8.8% vs. 2024; comparable store sales increased 10.0% to 2024, 12.3% on a two-year basis

• Net loss of $2.2 million, including the $11.0 million gain on the sale of the Savannah office building in Q2 2025, or adjusted net loss* of $12.5 million, vs. net loss of $29.0 million, or adjusted net loss* of $25.2 million in 2024.

• Adjusted EBITDA* loss of $0.1 million compared to adjusted EBITDA* loss of $21.3 million in 2024. Adjusted EBITDA* improvement of $21.2 million to last year driven by higher sales, 290 basis point increase in gross margin rate and 100 basis points of adjusted SG&A leverage, including the impact of higher incentive compensation accruals.

Fiscal 2025 Outlook

The Company is updating its fiscal 2025 outlook as follows:

• Expecting full year comparable store sales to be up high-single digits, on the high end of previous outlook

• Full year gross margin is expected to expand approximately 230 basis points vs. 2024, on the high end of previous outlook

• SG&A is expected to leverage approximately 90 basis points vs. 2024, on the high end of previous outlook

• Full year EBITDA* is now expected to be in the range of $10 million to $12 million, above previous outlook, a $24 million to $26 million improvement vs. 2024

• Expecting 2025 effective tax rate of approximately 0%, consistent with previous outlook

• For the year, the Company will open 3 new stores and remodel 62 stores, consistent with previous outlook. The Company will close 4 locations, above the previous outlook of 3 closures

• Full year capital expenditures are now expected to be approximately $23 million, on the lower end of previous outlook

While the Company does not provide quarterly guidance, given where it is in its fiscal year, it is offering the following comments about the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025:

• Q4 comparable store sales are expected to be up high-single digits

• Q4 gross margin is expected to be in the range of 40% to 41%

• SG&A is expected to be approximately $82 million

• Q4 EBITDA* is expected to be in the range of $10 million to $12 million

Investor Conference Call and Webcast

Citi Trends will host a conference call today at 9:00 a.m. ET. The live broadcast of Citi Trends’ conference call will be available online at the Company’s website, cititrends.com, under the Investor Relations section, beginning today at 9:00 a.m. ET. The online replay will follow shortly after the call and will be available for replay for one year.

The live conference call can also be accessed by dialing (877) 407-0779. A replay of the conference call will be available until December 9, 2025, by dialing (844) 512-2921 and entering the passcode, 13756478.

During the conference call, the Company may discuss and answer questions concerning business and financial developments and trends that have occurred after quarter-end. The Company’s responses to questions, as well as other matters discussed during the call, may contain or constitute information that has not been disclosed previously.

*Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The historical non-GAAP financial measures discussed herein are reconciled to their corresponding GAAP measures at the end of this press release. The Company is unable to provide a full reconciliation of the forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures above without unreasonable effort because it is not possible to predict certain of the adjustment items with a reasonable degree of certainty. This information is dependent upon future events and may be outside of the Company’ control and its unavailability could have a significant impact on its financial results.