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

Victoria's Secret

Victoria's Secret

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

L Brands' comparable sales were up 1% in April, 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 in April fell 1%, a rare miss for the company.

Victoria's Secret is 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 the slip was due to softness in the lingerie sector, its core business, as well as its beauty sector. The younger sister of the brand, Pink, performed well.

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

L BRANDS STOCK

Victoria's Secret

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

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

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

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