Cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh quý 2 năm tài chính 2026 của Citi Trends (CTRN): EBITDA cải thiện, nâng dự phóng

Điểm tin chính

• Doanh thu quý 2 năm tài chính 2026 tăng 10,9% so với cùng kỳ năm ngoái lên 211,6 triệu USD, trong khi doanh thu cùng cửa hàng tăng 10,5% và tăng 19,7% trên cơ sở gộp hai năm.
• EBITDA điều chỉnh đạt 5,5 triệu USD, cải thiện 6,6 triệu USD so với khoản lỗ 1,1 triệu USD của một năm trước đó. Biên EBITDA điều chỉnh mở rộng 320 điểm cơ bản lên 2,6%.
• Biên lợi nhuận gộp tăng 60 điểm cơ bản lên 40,6%, nhờ biên lợi nhuận hàng hóa cao hơn và tỷ lệ hao hụt hàng hóa giảm, mặc dù bị triệt tiêu một phần do chi phí vận tải tăng từ phụ phí nhiên liệu.
• EBITDA điều chỉnh trong nửa đầu năm tăng 14,1 triệu USD lên 19,4 triệu USD, vượt qua tổng EBITDA đạt được trong cả năm tài chính 2025. Ban lãnh đạo báo cáo tỷ lệ chuyển đổi doanh thu thành lợi nhuận từ đầu năm đến nay đạt 28%.
• Citi Trends đã nâng triển vọng cho năm tài chính 2026, dự báo tăng trưởng doanh thu cùng cửa hàng đạt từ 9% đến 11% và EBITDA điều chỉnh đạt từ 38 triệu USD đến 42 triệu USD.
• Ban lãnh đạo cho biết xu hướng doanh thu cùng cửa hàng gộp hai năm ở mức khoảng 25% vẫn tiếp tục kéo dài sang quý 3 năm tài chính tính đến thời điểm hiện tại trong mùa tựu trường, đồng thời lưu ý rằng phần lớn thời gian của quý vẫn còn ở phía trước.

Dữ liệu tài chính cốt lõi

Trong nửa đầu năm tài chính 2026, doanh thu cùng cửa hàng tăng 12,2%, tương đương 21,8% trên cơ sở hai năm. EBITDA điều chỉnh đạt 19,4 triệu USD, tăng 14,1 triệu USD, trong khi biên EBITDA điều chỉnh cải thiện 300 điểm cơ bản lên 4,4%.

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động

Tăng trưởng doanh thu cùng cửa hàng diễn ra cân bằng giữa lượng khách ghé thăm và quy mô giỏ hàng. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết khoảng một nửa mức tăng trưởng đến từ số lượng giao dịch cao hơn, phần còn lại đến từ các yếu tố cấu thành giỏ hàng. Khách hàng đã mua nhiều sản phẩm hơn trên mỗi giao dịch, trong khi giá bán lẻ trung bình trên mỗi đơn vị sản phẩm và cơ cấu hàng hóa cũng đóng góp vào mức tăng này.

Doanh thu tăng trưởng ở tất cả các ngành hàng, khu vực khí hậu của cửa hàng và nhóm phân khúc doanh số cửa hàng. Các mặt hàng cơ bản dành cho nam giới, trẻ em và gia đình tiếp tục duy trì hiệu suất ổn định. Ngành hàng giày dép gia đình hưởng lợi từ các sản phẩm mùa hè, phong cách hợp xu hướng và các gói sản phẩm giá trị có tính cạnh tranh cao.

Ban lãnh đạo cũng báo cáo đà tăng trưởng được cải thiện ở ngành hàng thời trang nữ. Việc cung ứng ổn định hơn các bộ sưu tập theo xu hướng đã hỗ trợ đà tăng trưởng ở phân khúc thời trang nữ trẻ và các danh mục đồ nữ khác trong quý cũng như khi bước sang quý 3 năm tài chính.

Mức tăng biên lợi nhuận hàng hóa và tỷ lệ hao hụt giảm đã giúp bù đắp chi phí vận tải cao hơn. Chi phí nhân công cửa hàng tối ưu hóa 70 điểm cơ bản từ đầu năm đến nay, trong khi chi phí trung tâm phân phối cải thiện 60 điểm cơ bản nhờ năng suất cao hơn. Citi Trends cũng tối ưu hóa chi phí SG&A 260 điểm cơ bản trong nửa đầu năm dù có thêm khoản đầu tư tiếp thị trên mạng xã hội.

Công ty kết thúc quý 2 với 594 cửa hàng và hoàn thành nâng cấp 26 cửa hàng, nâng tổng số cửa hàng được nâng cấp trong nửa đầu năm lên 51. 9 cửa hàng mở mới kể từ quý 4 năm tài chính 2025 đang đạt kết quả vượt kỳ vọng của ban lãnh đạo. Các cửa hàng mới được đánh giá bằng công cụ chọn vị trí dựa trên AI và hướng tới doanh thu khoảng 1,5 triệu USD khi đi vào ổn định, với biên lợi nhuận đóng góp tại cửa hàng ở mức khoảng 15%.

Citi Trends đã ra mắt nền tảng quan hệ khách hàng Insiders Club vào ngày 15 tháng 7. Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng mức độ gắn kết của khách hàng sẽ gia tăng vào cuối năm tài chính 2026 và sang năm 2027. Công ty cũng đang mở rộng việc sử dụng AI trong phân bổ hàng hóa, lựa chọn bất động sản, trích xuất và phân tích dữ liệu, cùng các ứng dụng bán hàng và lập kế hoạch cơ cấu sản phẩm đang ở giai đoạn đầu.

Dự báo của ban lãnh đạo

Ở mức trung bình của khoảng dự báo, ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng biên EBITDA điều chỉnh sẽ mở rộng khoảng 230 điểm cơ bản so với năm tài chính 2025. Citi Trends tiếp tục lên kế hoạch mở khoảng 40 cửa hàng mới trong năm tài chính 2027.

Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến tiền mặt cuối năm sẽ xấp xỉ mức 66 triệu USD của năm trước. Công ty cho biết thanh khoản hiện có và dòng tiền từ hoạt động kinh doanh sẽ hỗ trợ đầy đủ cho hoạt động kinh doanh hiện tại và các kế hoạch tăng trưởng hữu cơ.

Rủi ro và các yếu tố cần theo dõi

• Phụ phí nhiên liệu cao hơn đang làm tăng chi phí vận tải. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến áp lực này sẽ tiếp diễn trong suốt năm tài chính 2026 và đã đưa yếu tố này vào dự báo.
• Mục tiêu cửa hàng mới trong năm tài chính 2026 đã giảm từ 25 xuống còn khoảng 20 cửa hàng do vấn đề tiến độ, mặc dù kế hoạch mở rộng cho năm tài chính 2027 vẫn không thay đổi.
• Ban lãnh đạo cho biết Citi Trends vẫn còn các quy trình cần tinh chỉnh, các danh mục hàng hóa cần tối ưu hóa và các hệ thống cần xây dựng.
• Mặc dù kết quả ban đầu của mùa tựu trường khá tích cực, ban lãnh đạo thận trọng lưu ý rằng phần lớn quý 3 năm tài chính vẫn còn ở phía trước.

Tóm tắt phần Hỏi & Đáp với chuyên gia phân tích

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết khoảng một nửa mức tăng trưởng doanh thu cùng cửa hàng trong quý 2 năm tài chính đến từ việc gia tăng số lượng giao dịch. Phần tăng trưởng còn lại phản ánh các yếu tố về giỏ hàng, mặc dù Citi Trends không cung cấp số liệu phân tích chi tiết giữa số lượng sản phẩm trên mỗi giao dịch và giá bán lẻ trung bình trên mỗi đơn vị.

Khi được hỏi về sự khởi đầu khởi sắc hơn trong quý 3 năm tài chính, ban lãnh đạo cho biết đà tăng trưởng tiếp tục diễn ra ở hầu hết các danh mục. Mặt hàng cơ bản cho nam giới, trẻ em và gia đình vẫn tăng trưởng mạnh mẽ, trong khi ngành hàng đồ nữ ghi nhận sự cải thiện đáng kể khi các bộ sưu tập theo xu hướng được đưa đến các cửa hàng một cách đồng đều hơn.

Toàn văn cuộc họp công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Please note that this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll turn the conference over to [ Lynn Walter ] with ICR. Thank you, [ Lynn ]. You may begin.

Unknown Attendee

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for Citi Trends' second quarter 2026 earnings call. On our call today, Chief Executive Officer, Ken Seipel, and Chief Financial Officer, Heather Plutino. Our earnings release was sent out this morning at 6:45 a.m. Eastern Time. If you need a copy of the release, it is available on the company's website at ir.cititrends.com.

You should be aware that prepared remarks made today during this call may contain non-GAAP information and forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee future performance. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on these statements.

We refer you to the company's most recent report on Form 10-K and other subsequent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of the factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Ken Seipel. Ken?

Kenneth Seipel

Thank you, [ Lynn ], and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our second quarter 2026 earnings call. So building on the momentum from Q1, our second quarter results were defined by consistency. Consistent sales trend, consistent execution, and a consistent customer response across every month of the quarter. And I'm pleased to report that consistency has continued into the back-to-school season. Our year-to-date performance, on top of strong 2025 results, further validates that our strategy is working and that our execution is improving.

We remain keenly focused on our 3 2026 strategic priorities: consistent execution, sales flow-through to profit, and accelerated growth. As we noted in our sales press release on August 10th, our second quarter comparable sales increased 10.5%, which is 19.7% on a 2-year basis. It marked our 8th consecutive quarter of comparable store sales growth with the last 6-quarter momentum of plus 9% growth or better.

The performance demonstrates the consistency and durability of our strategy, and this focused and disciplined approach is driving a continuation of our 2-year stack comparable store sales trend of approximately 25% into Q3 to date during our important back-to-school season. Heather will cover the Q2 and P&L results shortly, but I would like to highlight and thank our team for driving sales along with controlling the expenses, which have converted sales to profit.

And speaking of profit, adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was $5.5 million, which was a $6.6 million improvement over last year's loss of $1.1 million. For the first half of 2026, we delivered EBITDA of $19.4 million, which is a $14.1 million improvement compared to the prior year. And in fact, we've generated more EBITDA in the first 6 months of 2026 than we generated the entire year last year in '25. I am very proud of the total team effort that resulted in strong sales flow-through to profit of 28% year-to-date.

Beginning with the gross profit line, which has improved 50 basis points to date due to the hard work of our merchandising team. I'd like to recognize the entire product team for improving our selling margin rate while continuing raising the bar on quality and maintaining sharp pricing. Also, thank you to our loss prevention team, who's really led efforts to reduce shrinkage. Improved selling margin and reduced shrinkage have helped offset the cost pressure of transportation fuel charges in gross profit.

Store payroll has been leveraged by 70 basis points year-to-date. I want to recognize our store teams who have raised the bar on store standards with consistent execution, keeping our stores neat, clean, and organized, while at the same time driving productivity gains. Distribution center productivity has also increased to keep pace with our growing business. The team has found ways to lower our distribution center costs by 60 basis points in the first half through improved efficiency.

And I also want to recognize our sales support teams in IT, finance, merchandise support, human resources, and legal for very strong expense controls. The work in achieving cost efficiencies allowed us to invest in incremental marketing on social media to build brand awareness, while at the same time, we were able to leverage SG&A by 260 basis points year-to-date. In summary, job well done, Citi Trends. I'm really proud of the work here. Thank you.

Now for a few more comments on sales. Q2 marked another quarter of balanced growth, with both transaction counts and basket size increasing over last year. The growth in basket size was also balanced with customers purchasing more units per transaction, higher average unit retail, and a mixed shift, which continues to validate the strength of our trend-right assortment and the value we deliver across the 3 merchandising tiers. Q2 is one of our lower sales volume quarters, so it's really good to see the consistency of transaction and sales growth during our non-peak periods.

We delivered second quarter sales increases over last year in every merchandise division across all store climate zones and store volume deciles. That growth was driven by a more trend-right assortment and an improved value proposition, as well as our heightened focus on delivering wear-now product for the summer, enabling us to capture demand during non-peak weeks and capitalize on key moments like Juneteenth, Fourth of July, and the early back-to-school season. We plan to apply a similar playbook for the non-peak period performance this fall, between back-to-school and holiday, building on the strategy that worked so well for us last year.

From a merchandising perspective, apparel, non-apparel, and home all increased over Q2 last year and year-to-date. Our men's team, children's team, and family basics produced consistently strong results in the quarter and year-to-date. And in addition, I'd like to highlight and congratulate our family shoe division. The shoe team delivered very strong performance in the quarter by focusing on summer wear-now product, elevated on-trend styles, and sharp price-value offerings.

I am often asked by our investors about Citi Trends' long-term ability to continue to grow sales. Product momentum continues to be the result of ongoing refinement across our good, better, and best pricing tiers. Each quarter, our assortments have become more balanced as we sharpen the quality-for-price equation on our core product, introduce updated trend product, and ensure that we have a good flow of well-known brands at extreme value pricing. While we're really proud of the progress, we do remain humbly aware of the opportunity for continual improvement, and we see a long runway for continued growth in nearly every product category.

So as a company, we remain sharply focused on our primary Black customer. Our brand promise to our customers is: styles that see you, prices that amaze you, and trends that tell your story. And what's important to highlight again is that our customer base spans a wide range of income levels, including a meaningful portion of middle and higher-income shoppers. In fact, customers with household incomes between $75,000 and $150,000 represent about 25% of our customer base and generate more than 40% of our revenue.

This creates a significant opportunity for us to expand our offering of recognizable brands at compelling prices that align with their style and trend expectations. You often hear us refer to good, better, and best product tiers as a way of describing how we build merchandise assortments. However, it's really not quite that linear for our customers, who tend to move fluidly between all 3 good, better, and best tiers, rather than staying confined to a single pricing and style level.

As an example, during a recent visit, I observed 2 young male shoppers who fit our top-tier customer come into one of our stores. And in a single visit, purchase items from across all 3 pricing tiers, beginning with buying a trendy outfit from our best product tier, shopping for everyday items in our better tier, and wrapping up the trip with an opening price point t-shirt. In another instance, an older male customer purchased from our core assortment, but at his wife's urging also purchased a trend item. These moments reinforce what we're seeing daily across in our stores and in our shopping basket analysis.

Balanced, good, better, and best assortments are important to round out the shopping basket and are a key component for consistent long-term growth. These product strategies, combined with our improved discipline in our open-to-buy process and the continued benefits of our AI-driven allocation systems, are driving stronger inventory productivity and margin performance. I mentioned earlier that we made incremental investments in marketing on our social media platforms, building our first quarter Citi Jingle Refresh Contest, in which we invited customers to help modernize the Citi Trends jingle, and we received a meaningful volume of submissions.

In the second quarter, we transitioned to the customer voting phase. Engagement has continued to exceed our expectations, generating strong social reach and viral moments while also driving incremental store traffic. The winning jingle is expected to be deployed in the second half of the year. But beyond the fun of the contest itself, this initiative reflects our broader marketing objective: deepening our connection with our customers and reinforcing our role in the communities we serve. I encourage you to take a look at our Instagram channel, where we've been sharing some of the best moments from the campaign.

On technology, we continue to expand the use of AI across the organization, which I would describe as a steady evolution rather than a single milestone moment. We recently rolled out an enterprise AI tool to help our teams with data extraction and analytics. This closed AI environment is already helping associates across the business, including our buying teams, work smarter, more efficiently, and in a more timely manner. This complements the AI tools already in use for product allocation and real estate site selection, and we're in the early stages of applying similar tools to merchandising and assortment planning.

On July 15th, we launched our new customer relationship platform, which we're calling the Insiders Club. The Insiders Club turns traffic into loyalty, loyalty into frequency, and frequency then into EBITDA. This gives us the ability to speak directly to our best and most engaged customers and will generate insights about their shopping habits that we'll use to refine and fine-tune our strategies going forward. We're in the early stages of enrollment, and we expect to engage our customers later this fall and build momentum with our best customers during Q4 and well into 2027.

And speaking of early stages, we are building new store opening momentum this year. I'd like to welcome our 4 new stores opened at the end of July: 2 stores in Rochester, New York; an additional store in Baltimore, Maryland; and Jackson, Tennessee. We've opened 9 stores since Q4 of 2025, all of which are exceeding our expectations. Our goal this year is to open approximately 20 stores and accelerate new store growth to around 40 in 2027 and beyond.

Each new location is evaluated using our AI tools and held to strict financial return and investment criteria. For our new stores, we're targeting roughly $1.5 million in mature sales and mid-teens four-wall contributions. Now I'll turn the call over to Heather to walk through the Q2 financial results in more detail, as well as our updated outlook. I'll return after her remarks for some closing comments. Heather?

Heather Plutino

Thank you, Ken, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to walk you through our financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2026. Our Q2 results reflect strong top-line growth, continued gross margin expansion, and disciplined expense management, leading to adjusted EBITDA of $5.5 million, a $6.6 million increase compared to a year ago. These results are evidence that the transformation of Citi Trends is on track and that the operating model we've built can consistently deliver improved results.

Based on our second quarter performance, we are raising our outlook for the year. I'll walk you through that revised outlook shortly, turning first to the specifics of our second quarter results. Total sales for the quarter were $211.6 million, a 10.9% increase to Q2 2025. Comparable store sales increased 10.5%, or an increase of 19.7% on a 2-year basis.

Q2 gross margin increased 60 basis points compared to a year ago to 40.6%, driven by higher merchandise margin and lower shrink levels as we continue to leverage investments in improved floor-level technology and processes. These tailwinds were partially offset by higher freight expense. As we discussed last quarter, rising fuel surcharges are leading to higher freight. We expect this to continue throughout the year and have incorporated that impact into our outlook.

Second quarter adjusted SG&A expenses totaled $80.4 million compared to $77.4 million a year ago, with the increase to last year driven primarily by expenses to support $21 million in incremental sales. As a rate of sales, adjusted SG&A for the quarter was 38%, leveraging 260 basis points versus last year as a result of higher sales and our largely fixed expense base. As I mentioned earlier, adjusted EBITDA grew $6.6 million over Q2 last year to $5.5 million, with adjusted EBITDA margin expanding 320 basis points to 2.6%.

During the quarter, we opened 4 stores, as Ken mentioned, and closed 1 location, ending the period with 594 stores. We remodeled 26 stores in Q2, bringing total remodels so far this year to 51 stores. Before turning to the balance sheet, let me provide a few details on our performance in the first half of fiscal 2026. First half comparable store sales were 12.2%, with a 2-year comp of 21.8%. First half comps were driven by growth in basket and transaction count.

Adjusted first half EBITDA was $19.4 million, an increase of $14.1 million to last year. EBITDA growth was driven by $50 million of incremental sales, 50 basis points of gross margin expansion, and 260 basis points of SG&A leverage. And in the first half of the year, we improved our EBITDA margin by 300 basis points to 4.4%. Now turning to the balance sheet. Our initiatives to improve inventory efficiency continue to deliver returns. We generated 10.5% comp sales growth in the quarter, with quarter-end total inventory up only 7.5% to last year.

Our balance sheet remains strong with $55.9 million in cash at the end of the quarter, no debt, and no drawings on our $75 million revolver. We continue to expect our year-end cash balance to be approximately flat to last year's $66 million, and we expect to remain in a strong financial position throughout the year, affording us the flexibility to pursue strategic alternatives. Turning to our guidance, we are updating our outlook for fiscal 2026 to incorporate results of our second quarter while maintaining our outlook for the second half of the year.

Our updated outlook for the full year is as follows. We now expect comparable store sales growth of 9% to 11%, higher than previous outlook of 8% to 10%, with total sales now expected to grow 10% to 12%. Gross margin is expected to expand approximately 50 to 70 basis points compared to the 39.6% we delivered in fiscal 2025, consistent with previous outlook. As we discussed in our last earnings call, we are leveraging new systems and processes to drive improvements in both markdowns and shrink while managing the impact of higher freight expense due to the fuel surcharges I mentioned earlier.

We now expect adjusted SG&A leverage in the range of 160 to 180 basis points versus fiscal 2025, higher than previous outlook of 130 to 160 basis points of leverage due to the impact of higher sales, plus continuation of our disciplined expense control. Adjusted EBITDA is now expected to be in the range of $38 million to $42 million, an increase to our previous outlook of $35 million to $40 million. At the midpoint, adjusted EBITDA margin is now expected to expand approximately 230 basis points over fiscal 2025.

Our outlook for new stores has been revised slightly to approximately 20 new stores in the year. The change from our previous outlook of 25 new stores is due to timing. We remain confident in our long-range plan for footprint growth and in our ability to execute our store opening strategy. Importantly, our plan to accelerate our store openings to 40 stores in fiscal 2027 remains unchanged.

We will be shifting capital spend from new stores to expand our remodel program in 2026. As a result, we now expect to remodel approximately 60 to 65 locations versus our prior outlook of 50 remodels, and we continue to expect to close approximately 4 locations in the year. Finally, our outlook for full-year capital expenditures remains unchanged at a range of $35 million to $40 million.

To close, our second quarter results validate the direction we set out for the year. Inventory efficiency, disciplined expense management, and return-focused investments are showing up in our financial results, and we expect that trend to continue. I'm grateful to our teams for the continued hard work behind these results, and we look forward to updating you on our progress in our next earnings call. With that, I'll hand the call back to Ken. Ken?

Kenneth Seipel

All right. Thank you, Heather. As we look ahead, we're firmly in the execute phase of our growth plan, focused on delivering against our customer brand promise. Our customers are discerning. They understand that value is more than just price. And they're willing to spend more when the style is right, the trend is relevant, and quality meets their expectations. In short, value is not just price. Our brand promise is very clear: styles that see you, prices that amaze you, and trends that tell your story. Our teams are focused every day on bringing that promise to life for our customers.

Our priorities in '26, which are consistent execution, strong sales flow to profit, and accelerated growth. First, in consistent execution. With foundational practices now in place, we've identified clear product opportunities to sustain comparable store sales growth into the foreseeable future. Our product team has sharpened focus on trend identification, trend curation, and style development. From opening price points to premium branded fashion, our merchant team translates these trends into compelling styles that deliver exceptional value to our customers.

Each season, we're improving our product, trend, and style execution while delivering and leveraging AI to optimize allocation. This creates a long runway of growth as we continue to develop and refine our product execution. On the marketing front, we're focused on expanding our social and influencer presence and ensuring our brand is authentically represented in everything we do. This is not just about visibility. It's about deepening relationships and reinforcing Citi Trends' commitment to the communities that we proudly serve.

Our second priority is ensuring strong sales flow to profit. Our plan for 2026 calls for a 10% to 12% sales growth, while more than doubling EBITDA, making this a very pivotal year in the evolution of our profit profile. Foundational to profit flow is leveraging our fixed cost structure and improving productivity of our teams. In addition, we have several initiatives supporting this objective, including our AI-based allocation systems, enhanced store technology to reduce shrink, and ongoing supply chain improvements to increase capacity and efficiency.

And as I've highlighted on prior calls, we continue to leverage KPI dashboards across all functions to ensure disciplined execution. A benefit of our improved execution is our ability to absorb macroeconomic challenges, like increased fuel surcharges, into our business model while still achieving improvements as noted for our outlook in the year.

Our third priority is growth, which will be disciplined, return-focused, and strategic. This year, we're making a deliberate investment in owning our customer relationship and building a sustainable, data-driven growth engine that compounds over time. The objective is to invest early to build customer relationships, and as the CRM system learns and scales, it becomes a meaningful contributor to long-term shareholder value.

Insiders Club transforms Citi Trends from a transaction-based retailer into a relationship-driven brand. It allows us to know our customer, reward our customer, and grow with our customer, while reinforcing the treasure hunt excitement that makes shopping with us a unique and rewarding experience. In 2026, we expect to open 20 new stores, and as Heather mentioned, remodel approximately 60 to 65 locations while preparing to accelerate expansion in 2027. Our approach is grounded in data-driven site selection, local market expertise, and disciplined financial criteria.

Next, an important priority is ensuring our entire team has embraced the concepts of personal accountability for results and the ownership of continuous skill development. Citi Trends is evolving into a learning organization. We are a company that facilitates the continuous learning and development of all employees to transform, adapt to changes, and improve performance, positioning us to maximize growth opportunities as they arise. And as a part of this initiative, we are focusing on succession planning for our key leadership roles to ensure continuity of our transformation plan while strengthening our bench of talent.

Finally, our strong debt-free balance sheet provides us with flexibility to pursue growth beyond our current organic plan. We continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities that are strategically aligned, financially compelling, and capable of enhancing long-term shareholder value. Any potential transaction will be held to the same disciplined financial standards that have guided our turnaround.

To further enhance that flexibility, our board has approved the implementation of a $100 million shelf registration. We view this as a prudent corporate finance measure that provides additional capital capacity should we identify new opportunities to accelerate profitable growth, including potential strategic investments or acquisitions. Importantly, we expect our existing liquidity and operating cash flow to fully support our current business and our organic growth plans.

The shelf does not reflect a current financing need or an intention to raise immediate capital. Rather, it provides us with additional flexibility to efficiently access the capital markets, if and when we identify an opportunity where doing so would create compelling long-term shareholder value. Our existing share repurchase authorization remains in place with $40 million of authorization on the outstanding agreement.

Together, our balance sheet, the shelf registration, and our repurchase authorization provides us with a flexible set of capital management tools. We will deploy or return capital based on the opportunities available to us, market conditions, and ultimately where we believe we can generate the greatest long-term value for our shareholders. So in closing, progress at Citi Trends is well underway.

Our track record of consistent comparable store sales shows that our strategy is working, our execution is more consistent, and our customer connection is stronger than ever. We are debt-free, disciplined, and positioned for growth. We have a clear path to profitable expansion, stronger earnings, and lasting shareholder value. We're clearly focused on our customer. The foundation is stronger, and the opportunity ahead of us is significant.

But we still have processes to refine, categories to optimize, and systems to build. We are more than just a retailer. We are a neighborhood destination for Black families delivering style, trend, value, and trust that no one else can deliver. I'm confident in our strategy and our team's ability to execute. The foundation we built positions us well for continued growth throughout the rest of this year and well beyond. I'd like to thank you for your continued support. And now I would like to turn the call over to the operator for Q&A. Thank you.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Jeremy Hamblin with Craig-Hallum. Please proceed.

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Jeremy Hamblin

I wanted to see if I could get a little bit more granular on the same-store sales. In terms of what you saw in Q2, what portion of that 10%-plus comp in the quarter was driven by more transactions versus the breakdown on your average ticket of UPTs versus average unit retail?

Kenneth Seipel

Yes, for sure, Jeremy. Hi, Jeremy. Thank you for the question. In terms of our same-store sales growth in the quarter, and it's been fairly consistent for the last several quarters, actually, about half of our growth is coming through increased transaction count. We view that as a very positive sign, obviously, for the business. And as I mentioned in the call, that was also through a non-peak period, which I think is noteworthy, at a point where the consumer really didn't have a compelling reason to come in. We still maintain nice, strong traffic. And so we're quite pleased with that.

Now, we haven't publicly released the details around average unit retail and average units per transaction. But if you think about it this way, about half of the growth is really transaction count and the other half are the components of the shopping basket.

Jeremy Hamblin

Fair enough. And then it sounds like you've seen a little bit of an acceleration here to start Q3, and you're lapping your toughest compares of the year, so quite impressive. I wanted to just understand in terms of category performance, where you're seeing that uptick. I know that you've talked quite positively about footwear, men's, juniors. I wanted to see if that's potentially the uptick being a result of maybe women's business picking up, or any additional color you might share on the momentum.

Kenneth Seipel

Yes, for sure. Yes, thank you, Jeremy. Good catch. We have seen increased momentum in the quarters. As I mentioned, we're looking at about a 25% 2-year stack at this stage, which is good. And we've got a lot of quarter to go, so more ahead yet. But the early results are good for back-to-school for sure. Again, the momentum that almost all of our categories experienced in Q2 literally has continued into Q3. And that's noteworthy because, again, you're kind of going from a non-peak to a peak period to kind of maintain that growth momentum is quite impressive.

And the teams that I called out, our men's team, our kids' team, and family basics are very consistent performers, and that has been the case here as well. I would highlight on your question, we did see a nice step change in our women's business. This is the first quarter that our women's team has been able to deliver trend modules to the stores on a fairly consistent basis. And so we were getting some strong reaction there, and it's a little bit more of a balanced assortment. We're enjoying growth in our misses categories and really across the board there. So it's been gratifying to see a nice step change in our women's business as a result of the trend effort.

Jeremy Hamblin

Great. I'll hop out of the queue and let others ask questions. Thank you. Congratulations.

Kenneth Seipel

Thanks, Jeremy. Appreciate it.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, I'll turn the floor back to management for further remarks.

Kenneth Seipel

All right. Well, I'd like to just thank everybody for your time and attention today and your interest in our brand. And we look forward to updating you on Q3 results as we continue here. So thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect. Have a wonderful day.