Dennis Nelson - President and CEO Karen Rhoads - SVP of Finance and CFO Pat Whisler - SVP of Women's Merchandising Kelli Molczyk - VP of Women's Merchandising Bob Carlberg - SVP of Men's Merchandising Kyle Hanson - VP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary Tom Heacock - VP of Finance, Treasurer and Corporate Controller

Ed Yruma - KeyBanc Capital Markets Julie Kim - Nomura Securities Adrienne Yih - Wolfe Research Liz Pierce - Brean Capital Paul Alexander - BB&T Capital Markets

Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for joining the call this morning. Our March 11, 2016 press release reported the net income for the 13-week fourth quarter ended January 30, 2016, was $54.3 million, or $1.13 per share on a diluted basis.

That's compared to net income of $60.1 million, or $1.25 per share on a diluted basis for the prior year 13-week fourth quarter, ended January 31, 2015. Our net income for the 52-week fiscal year that ended January 30, 2016, was $147.3 million, or $3.06 per share on a diluted basis, compared to net income of $162.6 million, or $3.38 per share on a diluted basis for the prior year 52-week fiscal year ended January 31, 2015.

Our net sales for the 13-week fourth quarter decreased 6.1%, to $332.0 million, compared to net sales of $353.5 million for the prior year 13-week fourth quarter. Comparable store sales for the quarter were down 7.2% in comparison to the same 13-week period in the prior year, and online sales increased 7.1%, to $35.3 million.

Net sales for the 52-week fiscal year decreased 2.9%, to $1.12 billion, compared to net sales of $1.153 billion for the fiscal 2014. Comparable store sales for the full year were down 4.4% in comparison to the same 52-week period in the prior year, and online sales increased 11.8%, to $105.5 million.

Gross margin for the quarter was 47.0%, down approximately 40 basis points from 47.4% for the fourth quarter last year. The decrease was driven primarily by de-leveraged occupancy, buying, and distribution expenses resulting from the comparable store sales decline, which had about a 70 basis point impact, and was partially offset by a 30 basis point improvement in merchandise margins for the quarter.

For the fiscal year, gross margin was 43.0%, down approximately 100 basis points from 44.0% for the same period last year. The decrease was driven primarily by de-leveraged occupancy, buying, and distribution expenses resulting from the comparable store sales decline, which had about a 90 basis point impact, and by a 10 basis point reduction in merchandise margin.

Selling expense was 19.5% of net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to 18.6% of net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, with increases in store payroll expense, expense related to the incentive bonus accrual, and online fulfillment and marketing expenses. For the fiscal year, selling expense was 19.0% of net sales, compared to 18.4% for fiscal 2014.

Increases in store payroll expense, online fulfillment, and marketing expenses, as well as certain other selling expenses were partially offset by a reduction as a percentage of net sales in expense related to the incentive bonus accrual. General and administrative expenses for the quarter were 2.4% of net sales, compared to 2.1% of net sales for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014.

An increase in equity compensation expense was partially offset by reduction as a percentage of net sales in certain other expense categories. For the fiscal year, general and administrative expenses were 3.5% of net sales, compared to 3.3% of net sales for fiscal 2014, with increases as a percentage of net sales across several expense categories.

Our operating margin for the quarter was 25.1%, compared to 26.7% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. For the full year, our operating margin was 20.5%, compared to 22.3% for fiscal 2014.

Other income for the quarter was $3.3 million, compared to $1.9 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, and other income for the full fiscal year was $5.2 million, compared to $2.7 million last year. Income tax expense as a percentage of pre-tax net income was 37.2% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to 37.6% for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, bringing fourth quarter net income to $54.3 million for fiscal 2015, versus 16.1 million for fiscal 2014.

For the full fiscal year, income tax expense was 37.3% of pre-tax net income for fiscal 2015, and 37.4% for fiscal 2014, bringing net income to $147.3 million for fiscal 2015, versus $162.6 million for fiscal 2014. Our press release also included a balance sheet, as of January 30, 2016, which included the following: inventory of $149.6 million, which was up approximately 15% from inventory of $129.9 million at the end of fiscal 2014, and total cash in investments of $231.5 million, which compares to $203.3 million at the end of fiscal 2014.

As of the end of the year, inventory on a comparable-store-basis was up approximately 13%, compared to the same time a year ago. And total markdown inventory was up compared to the same time a year ago.

We also ended the quarter with $172.8 million in fixed assets net of accumulated depreciation. Our capital expenditures for the quarter were $3.7 million, and depreciation expense was $8.5 million.

For the full fiscal year, capital expenditures were $34.6 million, and depreciation expense was $32.1 million. Year-to-date capital spending is broken down as follows.

22.6 million for new store construction, store remodels, and store technology upgrades, and 12 million for capital spending at the corporate headquarters and distribution center. We currently expect our fiscal 2016 capital expenditures to be in the range of $31 million to $35 million, which includes primarily new store and store remodeling projects, as well as certain IT investments.

During the quarter, we spent approximately $2.5 million to repurchase 83,596 shares of Buckle common stock, at an average price of $30.29. This brings our total shares repurchase for the full year to 103,693 shares, at a total cost of approximately 3.2 million, or $31.1 per share, and leaves 440,207 shares remaining on our current authorization.

For the quarter, UPTs increased approximately 2.0%. The average transaction value increased about 1%.

And the average unit retailed decreased approximately 1%. For the full fiscal year, UPTs increased approximately one-half of a percent.

The average transaction value increased approximately 2%. And the average unit retail increased approximately 1.5%.

Additionally, our average sales per square foot for the year was $430, compared to $459 in fiscal 2014, and our average sales per store was $2.2 million, compared to $2.3 million for fiscal 2014. Buckle ended the year with 468 retail stores in 44 states, compared to 460 stores in 44 states at the end of fiscal 2014.

Additionally, our total square footage was 2.378 million square feet as of the end of the fiscal year compared to 2.343 million square feet at the same time a year ago. And at this time, I would like to turn the call over to Tom Heacock.

Good morning, and thanks for being with us. I would like to start by highlighting the performance from our various merchandise categories for both the quarter and for the full fiscal year.

Men's merchandise sales for the quarter were down approximately 1.5% with strong categories including casual bottoms, sweaters, and accessories. Our average denim price points increased from $91.25 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 to $92 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.

For the quarter, our men's business was approximately 49% of net sales compared to 47% last year. And our average men's price points decreased approximately 1% from $59.35 to $58.85.

For the full year men's merchandise sales were up approximately 2% with strong categories including casual bottoms, knit shirts, shorts, and accessories. Our average denim price points increased from $92.05 in fiscal 2014 to $93.05 in fiscal 2015.

For the year, our men's business was approximately 45.5% of net sales compared to 43.5% last year. And our average men's price points decreased approximately 0.5% from $55.85 to $55.65.

Women's merchandise sales for the quarter were down approximately 11% with strong categories including casual bottoms, woven tops, and dresses. Our average denim price points decreased from $98.20 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014 to $95.70 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015.

For the quarter, our women's business was approximately 51% of sales compared to 53% last year, and our average women's price point decreased approximately 2% from $52.05 to $51.15. For the full year women's merchandise sales were down approximately 6.5% with strong categories including casual bottoms, woven tops, and dresses.

Our average denim price points decreased from $98.90 in fiscal 2014 to $96.15 in fiscal 2015. For the full year, our women's business was approximately 54.5% on net sales compared to a 56.5% last year, and our average women's price point increased approximately 2.5% from $49 to $50.30.

For the quarter, combined accessory sales were down approximately 1% and combined footwear sales were down approximately 3%. These two categories accounted for approximately 9.5% and 5.5% respectively of fourth quarter net sales, which compares to 9% and 5.5% for each in the fourth quarter last year.

Our average accessory price points were up approximately 2% and average footwear price points were down approximately 2.5%. For the full year, combined accessory sales were up approximately 1% and combined footwear sales were down approximately 2%.

And these two categories accounted for approximately 9% and 6% of net sales for fiscal 2015, which compares to 8.5% and 6% for each in fiscal 2014. Our average accessory price points for the full year were up approximately 7.5% and average footwear price points were up approximately 0.5%.

For the quarter, denim accounted for approximately 46% of sales and tops accounted for approximately 30.5%, which compares to 46.5% and 31.5% for each in the fourth quarter of last year. For the full year, denim accounted for approximately 42.5% of sales and tops accounted for approximately 31%, which compares to 43.5% and 31% for each in fiscal 2014.

Our Private Label business was up slightly as a percentage of sales for both the quarter and the year and represent approximately 38.5% of sales for the quarter and 36% for the full year. During the fourth quarter, we opened one new store, completed one substantial remodel, and closed one store post holiday bringing our count for the full year to nine new stores, 44 remodels, and one store closure.

As of the end of the year, 385 of our 468 stores are in our newest format. For fiscal 2016, we anticipate opening four new stores which include three for back to school and one for holiday.

We also anticipate completing 18 full remodels during the, and by season, we anticipate nine of the remodeled stores will be completed for spring, seven for back-to-school, and two for holiday. And with that, we welcome your questions.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

If memory serves me correctly, I think this is the first time you guys have bought back shares in some time. I guess, how do we think about your thought process around share buyback, and I guess, as that relates to the special dividend that you sometimes pay, kind of the balancing in share buyback and dividend?

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, Ed, and if I could take a moment before I answer your question, I'd just like to thank our management, team and teammates for the good fourth quarter in a difficult environment, and I also want to thank Pat Whisler, our Executive VP of Ladies' Merchandise, for her 40 year with The Buckle, and for her impact on the growth of The Buckle during her career.

In regards to the buyback and special dividends -- and we realize we're not experts in trading. So, by nature, we're very conservative on our approach there, and we'll probably be consistent with that thought process as we go forward.

Got it. And a follow-up, if I may.

I wish the inventory levels were higher than the sales growth or the change in sales. How would you assess the quality of inventory, and did you take enough markdowns during the quarter to enter the spring season clean?

Thank you.

Yes. Last year, we were low in our Men's Denim inventory, and so we have been building that up, and feel the quality of our inventory is good.

And, Tom, do you want to comment on the reserve?

Yes. I mean, I think we continue to look at that, and look at where we're at as far as inventory, and I think that's part of the reason when you look at the fourth quarter, that merchandise margins were higher was, looking ahead at the holiday-end of the third quarter, the merchandise margin or the merchandise reserve was a little bit higher at the end of the third quarter, compared to a year ago.

And the same holds true at the end of the fourth quarter.

Great. Thanks so much.

Thank you.

Hi, this is Julie Kim on for Simeon. Thanks for taking our question today.

Regarding the third –- could you give more color on the continued increase in penetration you're finding in the e-com channel. I believe e-com sales were up [technical difficulty] margins in your store fleet strategy?

Okay, you kind of cut out there for a second, Julie, so if I don't answer it completely, please advice. We continually work on improving our marketing for our internet site, and improvement of our presentation with emails, and just doing a better job of keeping our online store in the inventory as well, and so, as well as it also does a nice job of helping us clear certain sale product which we had a little bit more of than in past years, and we'll continue to look at developing programs and testing remarketing, and such, to continue to grow our online business.

Do you have an estimated, like, ideal penetration rate for that channel?

No, we haven't put a specific number on it. We think we'll continue to grow that slowly.

We also do a lot of special orders for our stores, where the guests will pick up a product that they request through the store, and we fulfill that through our online store in majority. And so, I think that also would add to that if we did not do specials.

All right, great. Thank you.

Yes.

Good morning. I was wondering if you could help us out with the gross margin.

The gross margin through this year came in much better than expected for the fourth quarter, down only 40 bips [ph], and I was wondering when we go into Q1, with this excess -- with the inventory growing faster than sales, and you'd said the quality is really good, how should I think about, or how should we think about the pressure on margin in Q1, and then, actually Q2 because that's where -- if there was any seasonal product that's where you'd need the clearance? My follow-up to that really is do you have any packaway, and was there any need to do any packaway, if so, just because of the warmer weather in fourth quarter?

Thank you.

We did maybe small part of our packaways in few items in outerwear and a few in sweaters, but probably not any greater amount than an average year. Do you want to comment on any other?

On the margins, I think that's hard for us to answer, and we don't give forward guidance, so have to see what happens.

Okay, any philosophy or broader commentary on how you manage through inventory when we could see that inventory gap close between sales and inventory growth?

Well, as far as -- I think the inventory will probably will be fairly consistent for the first half of the year just as what we have planned and how we will manage it, but I think we have shown over the years that we can keep a good handle on that and feel good about going forward with that.

Okay, great. Thank you very much, and best of luck for spring.

Thank you very much.

Thanks. Good morning, and you guys, nice job on handling this tough environment.

So just to clarify on the inventory, Dennis, last year on the denim -- for men's, was that a port-related issue, OR was that something else?

Part of it was port issue and just strong selling last year. So it's kind of a combination and maybe we had some new fits that worked well last year, as I remember.

And so, we are trying to catch up with that.

So was it mainly the men's side where if we are just looking at kind of buckets of inventory that was low, or was the women's accessories and footwear was that also low?

You are speaking of last year, Liz?

Yes, sorry.

Well, let me think just a second. Yes, I think it was more in the men's or might have been selected areas in the ladies, but we did have some -- or more daytrip price point of shorts and capris last year were delivered late and also loss some during the spring season.

So having that price point back in the store for this spring will be good, but otherwise, I think the ladies' as I remember the inventory was fairly on track.

Okay. That's helpful.

And in -- while we are talking about ladies, just in terms of Pat's retirement, I presume everything in terms of the structure of the team is in place. And did you bring new people in, or was it just promoting from within?

It's pretty much promoting from within. Kelli Molczyk is also VP of Ladies' Merchandise, and she was given that position almost a year and a half ago, and has been with us since 19-20 years.

And we have Stacy that works with denim and accessories and categories, been with us over 20 years; and Melissa has been over 20 years in footwear and other categories. We feel we have a strong bench, and that Pat help develop a strong team as she takes her retirement.

Wow, that's impressive. And then, I guess also on denim, I mean any -- continue to hear chatter in the vendor community about denim coming back, so clearly it's a big component for you guys.

I was intrigued the fact that you didn't really lose much on price point for year what else are you seeing or hearing as we think about back-to-school?

Well, we have added some brands that sell in the $60 to $70 price range, as well as expanding some of our private label and -- to complement the brands that we continue to use going forward. And the team is doing a little more fashions and different looks, some higher rise, still a variety of fits, some curvy styles, variety of finishes.

So our denim business continues to be pretty good, and we think we will do a good job with it going forward. Ladies, do you have anything to add?

I…

Go ahead. This is Pat.

Hi, Pat.

Just to say to kind of to echo what Dennis is saying, we have some opportunities and price point fit finishes that we just feel good about and the addition of some of the curvier fits that we think will address some of the guests and variety of bottom openings and such. So Liz, denim is always a solid part of our business all the time, but when it's trending up and we have some things to work with and creativity as a team, it surely is a bonus.

So, it sounds like maybe you are optimistic that we are going to see they are trending up?

Well, we are always optimistic, but we have to just see how it plays out.

Okay, all right. Thank you, Pat, and congratulations on your retirement.

Thanks, and best of luck, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, thank you. Just stepping back and looking at the overall trend of the business, in the last two quarters comp trends really -- it's worse than significantly versus last year and a half before that, and February comps are still pretty challenged.

So how should we be thinking about the big picture? What are the biggest challenges?

Is it macro, certain regions, is it fashion trend cycle related? Is it maybe certain categories?

Is it anything about competition? Just big picture kind of where we are headed and are there any milestone moments that we should be looking for to kind of turn the trend around?

Thank you.

Thank you, Paul. My point of view would be that it would be more macro.

There's a lot of different parts of our country that economy is little challenging, that the teams are working through. I think our stores from the response of our teammates and from what we hear from the other vendors that we look unique and special and have a good presentation going.

Excuse me. So, I think our teams are doing a good job and our service in our stores is excellent.

So I think it's just the challenge of getting the excitement back for guests who come into the stores and feel good about their pocket looks as well as we are reviewing our promotions for back to school. How we can create more excitement there from what we've done in the past.

I know that teams are putting in more of a variety of price points, hitting some of the lower price points again for some of the guests as well as our stores are testing out what we call Buckle Select which is where a in-store stylist will be in touch with the guest and helping them find out fits and getting ready for occasions for the guests that are just too busy to get into the store and shop as well as they are still doing quite a bit of appointments with our guest, get fitted situations.

All right. Thank you very much.

Good luck.

Yes, thank you.

With no additional questions, again we would like to thank everyone for joining the call today, and have a great weekend. This concludes the call.