American Eagle March sales fall; outlook is cut

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Teen clothing retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc (AEO.N) cut its first-quarter outlook on Thursday citing a 12 percent drop in March sales at stores open at least a year, which was worse than expected.

Analysts, on average, had expected March same-store sales to fall 8.9 percent, according to Reuters Estimates.

Total sales fell 2 percent for the five weeks ended April 5 to $267.3 million.

While shopper traffic was weak throughout the month, it was particularly low during the Easter holiday and spring break period, the company said.

Same-store sales fell in all regions of the United States, American Eagle said in a recorded call.

Citing the same-store sales drop, the company cut its profit forecast for the first quarter to 18 cents to 20 cents a share. It had previously forecast a per-share profit of 25 cents to 27 cents.

(Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; editing by John Wallace and Dave Zimmerman)