Sally Beauty Holdings announced financial results for the fiscal 2013 third quarter.

The company’s consolidated net sales were $912.1 million, up 2.8%. There was a same store sales growth of 0.7% vs. growth of 5.2% in 3Q12. The 3Q13 net earnings were $72.5 million – with earnings per share of $0.42, which is a growth of 13.5%.

Some of the highlights for the Beauty Systems Group are:

• Sales of $353.0 million, up 5.8% from $333.6 million in the fiscal 2012 third quarter.
• Same store sales growth of 4.6% versus growth of 5.3% in the fiscal 2012 third quarter.
• Gross margin of 41.5%, a 10 basis point improvement from 41.4% in the fiscal 2012 third quarter.
• SG&A as a percent of sales was 24.8% compared to 25.4% in the prior year quarter.
• Segment earnings of $52.7 million, up 13.0% from $46.7 million in the fiscal 2012 third quarter.
• Segment operating margins increased by 90 basis points to 14.9% of sales from 14.0% in the fiscal 2012 third quarter.
• Net store count was 1,223, an increase of 47 stores over the fiscal 2012 third quarter.
• Total BSG distributor sales consultants at the end of the fiscal 2013 third quarter were 995 versus 1,110 at the end of the fiscal 2012 third quarter.

“Our fundamental business drivers are solid and we remain confident in the long term health of our business,” stated Gary Winterhalter, chairman, president and CEO.

Winterhalter continued, “During the third quarter, customer traffic at our BSG and Sally International businesses was healthy; however, store traffic from the non-Beauty Club Card customer in the Sally U.S. business was soft. We’ve launched several initiatives specifically to address this customer and remain optimistic that traffic will recover over the next few months. On a consolidated basis, we improved SG&A leverage by 50 basis points and grew earnings per share by 13.5%. During the third quarter, we purchased $94 million or 3.1 million shares of our stock. As of the end of June we had $559 million remaining on our current authorization.”