Cato Corporation (CATO) swung to a net loss for the quarter ended Jan. 28, 2017. The company has made a net loss of $12.81 million, or $ 0.48 a share in the quarter, against a net profit of $11.84 million, or $0.42 a share in the last year period.

Revenue during the quarter dropped 11.98 percent to $220.45 million from $250.46 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 734 basis points over the previous year period to 29.54 percent. Operating margin for the quarter stood at negative 10.83 percent as compared to a positive 6.24 percent for the previous year period.

Operating loss for the quarter was $23.87 million, compared with an operating income of $15.62 million in the previous year period.

"2016 was a very disappointing year for Cato. The overall apparel retail environment continued to be difficult and was compounded by several mistakes of our own. We also are being impacted by the disruption caused by the growth of online sales at other retailers, resulting in lower store traffic. In the back half of the year, we made several mistakes in our merchandise assortment, fit and timing. This resulted in significant reductions to regular priced sales causing us to liquidate a large portion of our slow selling inventory which put severe pressure on earnings," commented John Cato, chairman, president and chief executive officer. Fourth quarter gross margin decreased to 28.8% of sales from 36.1% of sales in 2015 primarily due to reduced merchandise margins and higher occupancy costs