Victoria's Secret's business is doing the unthinkable and investors are panicking

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Victoria's Secret has suffered a rare misfire, and now the lingerie stalwart's parent company L Brands' stock has been falling.

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For the month of April, L Brands comparable sales were up 1%, but that's not what analysts were looking for. According to Bloomberg, analysts had estimated an average of a 4.8% increase.

But more jarringly, the shortfall was because Victoria's Secret's comparable sales fell 1% for the month of April, a rare miss for the company.

Victoria's Secret is famously a leader in the lingerie industry, taking in nearly $7.7 billion in sales (including e-commerce) in 2015, a time when other retailers were struggling.

So the drop freaked investors out on Thursday: Shares of L Brands dropped 12%.

In a statement, L Brands said that slip was because of softness in the lingerie sector, its core business, as well as its beauty sector. The younger sister of the brand, PINK, performed well.

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For the entirety of the first quarter, comparable sales for Victoria's Secret were up 2%.

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Recently, the company has executed some efforts that have led people to question its future.

Former CEO Sharen Jester Turney abruptly resigned in February. In April, the company released a notice saying that it would be restructuring the company and cutting roughly 200 jobs while doing so.

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News recently broke that it would axe its swimwear collection, though that could be a move to help the brand evolve.

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