You are given a text that consists of multiple sentences. Your task is to perform abstractive summarization on this text. Use your understanding of the content to express the main ideas and crucial details in a shorter, coherent, and natural sounding text. 
Text: I hope you, your colleagues and loved ones are healthy as the COVID pandemic continues to be a global challenge.
We appreciate the resiliency of the Skechers organization over the past 18 months and hope that those facing the ongoing COVID-related challenges are staying safe.
Skechers second quarter financial results exceeded expectations as we achieved record quarterly sales of $1.66 billion, a 127% increase over 2020 and a 32% increase over 2019.
This marks the first time our quarterly sales have exceeded $1.6 billion and together with our first quarter yields a new six-month record of over $3 billion.
We also achieved a record gross margin of 51.2%, record quarterly diluted earnings per share of $0.88, an exceptionally strong operating margins of 12.1%.
Our record revenues were the result of increases of 147% in our domestic business and 114% in our international business and both businesses increased over 30% compared to 2019.
International sales comprised 56% of our total sales in the quarter.
This growth, a result of increases across all reportable segments, is reflective of higher average selling prices on significantly more units sold, less promotional activity during the period and consumers embracing our comfort technology in our seasonal, athletic and casual footwear lines, in addition to our apparel offering.
It is important to note that these exceptional second quarter results came despite the ongoing global pandemic.
COVID continue to clearly impact some countries in the second quarter, most notably India, but also remains a challenge for many other markets with lockdown restrictions, temporary closures and reduced store operating hours.
The pandemic and other factors also continue to challenge our global supply chain.
We appreciate the dedication and focus of the Skechers teams around the world.
Without them, we wouldn't have achieved the results we had.
Our international wholesale business grew 95% from the second quarter last year and 37% from 2019.
The quarterly sales growth was primarily driven by China with an increase of 51% over the same period in 2020 and a 68% increase from 2019, as well as Europe, which had an increase of 150% over 2020 and 85% over 2019.
Our joint venture businesses increased 56% for the quarter compared to 2020 and 46% as compared to 2019.
In addition to China, Mexico and Israel also improved over both periods.
Subsidiary sales increased 163% from 2020 and 48% from 2019 despite temporary closures and reduced operating hours in many regions, including India, Canada, Japan and parts of Europe and South America.
The UK, Germany, Canada, France, Spain and Italy all achieved notable growth of about 2020 and 2019's comparable periods.
Our distributor business improved 122% over last year, though it was down 7% from 2019.
Several markets achieved growth not only compared to 2020 but also 2019.
These include Australia, Russia, Taiwan, Algeria, South Africa, Scandinavia and Ukraine, among others.
Our largest distributor, the UAE, which handles much of our business across the Middle East and parts of Africa and Eastern Europe, saw significant improvements over 2020 and we believe it is continuing to improve.
Skechers direct-to-consumer business increased 138% over 2020 and 26% over 2019 despite temporary store closures, primarily in India, Canada, Japan and Chile and reduced hours in many of our international company-owned stores due to local health guidelines.
Worldwide comp store sales were up 109% compared to 2020, including 96% domestically and 165% internationally.
As compared to 2019, worldwide comp store sales increased 13%, including an increase of 22% domestically and a 9% decrease internationally, reflecting the ongoing store closures.
Our direct-to-consumer average selling price per unit rose 17% compared to 2020, indicative of our less promotional stance and the success of our comfort technology products.
Given the unpredictability of the coronavirus and its continued impact on many markets, we remain cautious about our return to normal traffic and sales in many international stores but believe that we will see improvements where we are fully open and restrictions will ease.
Our domestic direct-to-consumer sales increased 101% compared to the second quarter of 2020 and nearly 30% compared to 2019.
Driving this growth was a 232% increase in our retail store sales or 11% over 2019.
The domestic retail store improvement was partially offset by a decrease in our domestic e-commerce channel of 25%, which faced difficult comparisons to the prior year.
However, it is important to note that domestic e-commerce sales were up 337% over 2019.
Our international direct-to-consumer business increased 259% over the second quarter of 2020 and 20% over 2019.
The growth as compared to 2019 was the result of a larger international company-owned retail store base and increases in our e-commerce business.
A number of markets achieved growth over both 2020 and 2019, including the UK, Spain, Germany, Mexico and others.
Our e-commerce channel remains a meaningful growth opportunity and continues to grow this business.
We recently launched our new loyalty program in the United States, which we will be capitalizing on in the coming weeks.
We're also looking forward to the planned expansion of our worldwide e-commerce presence this year and into 2022.
In the second quarter, we opened 13 company-owned Skechers stores, including key locations in Antwerp, Barcelona Berlin and Lima.
We closed eight locations in the second quarter as leases expired.
We have opened three stores to-date in the third quarter and have another three planned through the end of the month, with another 20 to 25 expected to open by year's end.
An additional net 63 third-party Skechers stores opened in the second quarter across 26 countries, including our first in the Dominican Republic.
In total, at quarter end, there were 4,057 Skechers stores around the world.
Another 145 to 155 third-party stores are expected to open by year-end.
Sales in our domestic wholesale business improved significantly.
206% in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2020 and 31% compared to the same period in 2019.
Nearly every product category we achieved growth in the quarter with the highest gains coming from sports, kids, casual and our seasonal sandal footwear.
Additionally, the average selling price per pair increased, reflecting the appeal of our new comfort product and technologies.
Innovations in developing footwear technology has been a significant part of our DNA for much of our history.
Going back to our made to last occupational footwear to the lightweight cushioning and performance material for our first generation Skechers GO RUN and GO WALK lines, the features that deliver comfort in every pair.
Our core product philosophy of comfort, style, innovation and quality at the right price is resonating with consumers, especially during these difficult times as we believe people are embracing a more relaxed lifestyle and want to incorporate comfort into their work and week end wear.
Throughout the quarter, we were strategic in our approach to marketing, communicating the comfort and innovations of Skechers vast collection of products for men, women and kids.
In the second quarter, our multiplatform approach included television, outdoor, print and online in many global markets.
This created awareness, helped drive sales and resulted in our record revenues.
To further support our business in the coming year, we are enhancing our infrastructure with new distribution centers in Peru, the UK and Japan and are looking for a location in India.
We have completed our new 1.5 million square foot China distribution center, which as of this month is fully operational.
We are continuing to work on the expansion of our LEED Gold-certified North American distribution center, which will bring our facility in Southern California to 2.6 million square feet in 2022.
Given our global growth, we are confident that Skechers innovative collection of comfort footwear and apparel resonated with consumers as they began returning to work, dining out, shopping and traveling.
Where markets were open and restrictions eased, sales exceeded our expectations.
And in the markets that were largely closed due to local health guidelines, we still performed well given the circumstances.
We believe our exceptional results in the second quarter are signs of the power of the brand globally.
Skechers second quarter results were remarkable and even exceeded our internal targets for the period.
They clearly illustrate the strength of our comfort technology product portfolio, resident brand and the focused execution of our global growth strategy.
And we delivered these results despite lingering obstacles posed by the pandemic, including supply chain challenges, continued store closures and operating restrictions primarily in some international markets.
Now let's turn to our second quarter results where we will provide comparisons to both prior year and 2019.
Since the prior year is heavily influenced by the impact of the pandemic and numerous lockdowns, I will largely focus my commentary on the comparisons to 2019 because we believe it is a more meaningful period against which to assess our performance.
Sales in the quarter achieved a new record totaling $1.66 billion, an increase of $928.3 million or 127% from the prior year and a 32% increase over the second quarter of 2019 with both our domestic and international businesses growing over 30%.
On a constant currency basis, sales increased $857 million or 118% from the prior year.
International wholesale sales increased 95% year-over-year and grew 37% compared to the second quarter of 2019.
Our joint ventures grew 56% year-over-year, led by China which grew 51% on the strength of robust e-commerce demand, partially offset by weakness in several adjacent markets, which are still being impacted by the pandemic.
As compared to the second quarter of 2019, China grew by 68%.
Subsidiary sales increased an impressive 163% year-over-year and as compared to the second quarter of 2019 grew 48%.
The improvement versus 2019 was primarily the result of volume increases, particularly in Europe.
Our distributor business grew 122% year-over-year, declined by 7% as compared with the second quarter of 2019.
We are pleased by the year-over-year growth in this business, which as expected continues to recover more slowly from the pandemic.
However, we remain optimistic that this business retains its attractive long-term growth characteristics.
Direct-to-consumer sales increased 138% year-over-year, supported by growth in both domestic and in international markets, albeit at a lower rate due to store closures in the period.
As compared with the second quarter of 2019, direct-to-consumer sales increased 26%, the result of a 30% increase domestically and a nearly 20% increase internationally.
Domestic wholesale sales grew 206% year-over-year and as compared to the second quarter of 2019 increased 31%.
As indicated on last quarter's earnings call, we continue to see very positive underlying trends with the majority of our domestic wholesale partners, including healthy sell-through rates and strong average selling prices.
Gross profit was $849.5 million, up 130% or $480.9 million compared to the prior year.
Gross margin for the quarter was 51.2%, an increase of over 70 basis points versus the prior year and 270 basis points as compared to 2019.
In both instances, gross margins improved as a result of higher average selling prices across all segments.
Compared to 2020, the increase in gross margin was partially offset by channel mix, including a lower proportion of e-commerce sales and a higher proportion of domestic wholesale sales.
Total operating expenses increased by $220.3 million or 51% to $652.44 million in the quarter versus the prior year period.
Selling expenses in the quarter increased year-over-year by $72.2 million or 120% to $132.4 million.
However, as a percentage of sales, this represented a year-over-year decrease of 30 basis points and as compared to 2019, a 100 basis point reduction.
The dollar increase year-over-year was primarily due to higher demand creation spending as markets reopened globally.
General and administrative expenses in the quarter increased year-over-year by $148 million or 40% to $519.9 million but decreased as a percentage of sales by almost 20 percentage points.
The dollar increase year-over-year was primarily reflective of increased labor and incentive costs as well as volume-driven expenses and warehouse and distribution for all our businesses globally.
Earnings from operations were $201.2 million versus a prior year loss of $61 million, an increase of $262.2 million.
Compared to the second quarter of 2019, earnings from operations increased 81%, operating margin was 12.1% as compared with 8.8% in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 330 basis points.
Net earnings were $137.4 million or $0.88 per diluted share on 156.7 million diluted shares outstanding.
This compares to prior-year net loss of $68.1 million or $0.44 per diluted share on 154.1 million diluted shares outstanding.
As compared to the second quarter of 2019, net earnings improved 83% from $75.2 million or $0.49 per diluted share.
Our effective income tax rate for the quarter was 20.4% versus an income tax benefit of $4.3 million in the prior year and an 18.4% effective tax rate in the second quarter of 2019.
And now, turning to our balance sheet.
Our cash and liquidity position remain extremely healthy.
During the second quarter, we fully repaid our revolving credit facility, of which $452.5 million was outstanding and still ended the quarter with $13.2 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments.
This reflects a decrease of 234.5 million or 15.1% from June 30, 2020.
Trade accounts receivable at quarter-end were $778.2 million, an increase of $300.2 million from June 30, 2020, predominantly a result of higher wholesale sales.
Total inventory was $1.06 billion, an increase of 2.9% or $29.5 million from June 30, 2020.
The increase is primarily attributable to higher inventories to support growth in Asia.
Total debt, including both current and long-term portions, was $312 million at June 30, 2021 compared to $763.3 million at June 30, 2020, reflecting the repayment of our revolving credit facility during the quarter.
Capital expenditures for the second quarter were $62 million, of which $23.1 million related to the expansion of our joint venture on domestic distribution center in the United States, $14.7 million related to investments in our direct-to-consumer technologies and retail stores, $8 million related to our new now fully operational distribution center in China and $7.8 million related to investments in our new corporate offices in Southern California.
Our capital investments remain focused on supporting our strategic growth priorities, growing our direct-to-consumer business as well as expanding the presence of our brand internationally.
For the remainder of 2021, we expect total capital expenditures to be between $150 million and $200 million.
Now, I will turn to guidance.
Given our outstanding performance this quarter as well as cautious optimism that the recently resurgent virus impacts will be limited.
We expect third quarter and full year results above our previous guidance range in both sales and earnings per share.
We expect third quarter 2021 sales to be in the range of $1.6 billion and $1.65 billion and net earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $0.70 and $0.75.
For fiscal 2021, we now expect sales to be in the range of $6.15 billion and $6.25 billion.
And net earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $2.55 and $2.65.
We anticipate that gross margins over the back half of the year will be up as compared to the back half of 2019.
And then, our effective tax rate for the year will be approximately 20% as compared to a rate of 5.5% in 2020 and 70% in 2019.
Our second quarter performance exceeded expectations with three new records, quarterly revenues of more than $1.6 billion, gross margins of 51.2% and diluted earnings per share of $0.08.
Our innovative comfort product resonated with consumers around the world, conversions and foot traffic improved in many of our retail stores opened during the period and our e-commerce business continued to perform well.
Although we remain in a fluid situation with various government responses to COVID globally, given our performance in the first half of the year, the strength of our brand in our product, we believe, our momentum will continue in the back half of the year and into next year.
We remain focused on driving sales by managing our inventory flow, developing and delivering fresh new innovative product and communicating our message to consumers that Skechers is the comfort technology company.

user
compname announces record second quarter 2021 sales of $1.66 billion and diluted earnings per share of $0.88.
q2 earnings per share $0.88.
q2 sales $1.66 billion versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $1.49 billion.
sees fy earnings per share $2.55 to $2.65.
sees q3 earnings per share $0.70 to $0.75.
sees q3 sales $1.6 billion to $1.65 billion.
sees fy sales $6.15 billion to $6.25 billion.

assistant