MEN’S WEARHOUSE SHARES PLUMMET MORE THAN 45 PERCENT

The stock price of clothing retailer Men’s Wearhouse has plummeted more than 45 percent (as of 11:30am Friday) since the company announced on Thursday that it has lowered its third quarter adjusted earnings per share outlook to be in the range of $0.46 to $0.51 from its previous expectation of $0.87. It also cut its fiscal 2015 EPS outlook almost $1 per share.

The primary reason for the stock freefall is that third quarter comparable sales decreased 14.6 percent at Jos. A. Bank, far below its earlier expectations, which has seen traffic decrease since moving away from its much-advertised Buy-One-Get-Three promotional events, which the company discontinued last month. Fourth quarter comparable sales at Jos. A. Bank are now expected to decrease between 20 and 25 percent.

We did not anticipate that the impact from the traffic decline would occur to this degree,” Men’s Wearhouse CEO Doug Ewert said in a statement. “Despite these results, we continue to believe that transitioning away from the unsustainable promotional strategy we inherited from Jos. A. Bank and accelerating our new promotional strategy is the right thing to do for the long-term success of the Jos. A. Bank business.”

In June, Men’s Wearhouse traded as high as 65.81 per share, as opposed to this morning’s price in the $22 per share range.