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 staying safe and healthy.
We couldn't have weathered the storm in such good shape without all your hard work.
Many countries faced another surge of the pandemic in the fourth quarter, which negatively impacted businesses around the world, resulting in temporary store closures and reduced traffic.
Even with the ongoing health crisis and challenges, Skechers experienced growth in several of our segments and meaningful improvements in key countries.
Our fourth quarter sales were $1.32 billion, a half of 1% decrease from the prior year which was a fourth quarter record and notably a sequential improvement from the third quarter of nearly 2%, illustrating the continuing recovery of our business.
Our strong year-over-year sales in the fourth quarter was the result of a 1.2% increase in our domestic wholesale business and a 1.1% increase in our international business, which was led by nearly 30% sales increase in China, as well as growth in Europe and Latin America.
Throughout the quarter and year, we strategically directed the flow of inventory to markets that were open, delivered fresh product to consumers and continued to fulfill demand resulting in growth in many key distribution channels.
In 2020 consumers searched and desired comfort and value.
With comfort as the cornerstone of the Skechers design initiatives, along with style and value inherent to our product development, we are a natural choice for all, including essential workers and those working from home.
In our domestic wholesale business, our fourth quarter sales growth of 1.2% came primarily from our athletic casuals, walking and work footwear, as well as high single-digit improvement in our men's business.
The domestic business decreased 2.8% due to a 7.6% decline in our direct-to-consumer sales, which was negatively impacted by reduced traffic in our brick-and-mortar stores, a result of the stay at home guidelines, and an overall decline in foot traffic and tourism.
We believe our domestic brick-and-mortar stores will continue to be impacted by the pandemic at least through the first half of the year, though we expect to see improvement as more people receive vaccinations and government restrictions ease.
The decrease in our domestic direct-to-consumer business was partially offset by a 142.7% increase in our domestic e-commerce channel, which continues to perform extremely well.
With a focus on improving our direct-to-consumer experience over the holiday season, customers were able to shop online and pickup in store at many of Skechers locations across the United States.
We are now completing the update to our point-of-sales system to better connect within our e-commerce channel and we are finalizing enhancements to our loyalty program, both of which we believe will further improve our omnichannel offering.
We continue to view our e-commerce channel as an opportunity for meaningful growth, as sales increased significantly on both our domestic and international sites that we currently operate, and this coming year, we plan to launch new sites across Europe and South America, which will provide both a better brand experience for consumers as well as new sales channel for Skechers in many regions.
Our international direct-to-consumer business decreased 4.4% which was due to a decline in traffic with stay at home guidelines, reduced hours and temporary closures primarily in Europe, Canada and Latin America.
In total, Skechers direct-to-consumer segment decreased 6.4% as the pandemic spread again in numerous markets temporary store closures and reduced hours continued.
In the United States, consumer traffic at our stores was approximately 35% lower and operating hours were reduced by approximately 20%.
For our international company-owned stores we effectively lost 17% of the days available to days available to sell during the quarter.
At quarter end nearly 10% of our company-owned stores were closed due to health guidelines.
Today, due to government restrictions, a number of our international locations remain closed or have reduced hours.
All Skechers stores in the United States are open and some domestic regions are trending positive, while others are still impacted by reduced hours and traffic due to local guidelines.
To note, while our direct-to-consumer business decreased in the fourth quarter, we did experience sequential quarterly sales improvement of 9.5%.
In the fourth quarter, we opened 19 company-owned Skechers stores, 12 of which were international locations, including a flagship store in Munich.
We closed 6 locations in the fourth quarter and another 18 have closed to date in the first quarter.
By the end of the first quarter, another 5 to 7 company owned stores are expected to close.
An addition of 108 third party Skechers stores opened in the fourth quarter, bringing our total store count at quarter end to 3891.
The stores that opened were across 22 countries with China opening the most locations including our first dedicated golf store at the same Mission Hills Golf Resort in Shenzhen.
Our international sales improved 1.1% over the same period last year and sequentially 4.5% higher than the third quarter.
Our international wholesale business improved 2.5% from the fourth quarter last year.
This was the result of increases in our joint venture business with 19.4% led by an increase of 29.7% in China and an increase in our subsidiaries of 12.7%.
The subsidiary growth was across Europe and Latin America with exceptional improvements in the United Kingdom and Germany, as well as in Chile and Spain.
As expected, our distributor business was down 57.9% due to ongoing store closures in several markets, including our largest distributor, which covers the Middle East.
To support the open markets during the holiday selling period, our marketing efforts were focused on comfort with commercials and digital advertising to support key initiatives for men's, women and kids.
This included a new campaign with former quarterback and lead NFL commentator Tony Romo for max cushioning, who you will see in a Skechers Super Bowl commercial this Sunday.
To support our business during 2020 and for the coming years, we took steps to not only enhance our POS systems and e-commerce platforms, including the addition of BOPIS and BOPAC in the United States, but also enhanced our distribution centers and supply chain production capabilities.
Along with opening a new logistic center in Columbia, we have a distribution center in the United Kingdom to serve the region in a post Brexit environment.
The automation of our new 1.5 million square foot China distribution center remains on track for full implementation by midyear and we continue working on the expansion of our North American distribution center which will bring our facility to 2.6 million square feet in 2022.
We anticipate many markets will remain challenged in the first half of the year due to the pandemic, but believe some countries are showing signs of recovery.
During this time, we will continue to manage the flow of our inventory to fulfill demand where we are open, spend prudently in markets still impacted and drive sales where possible.
2020 was an extremely challenging year and the fourth quarter was no exception.
Multiple markets continue to experience significant operating restrictions, including store closures and reduced operating hours.
Despite this, the Skechers brand performed exceptionally well with encouraging sell-through and strong gross margins.
In addition, the Skechers organization continued to effectively navigate the uncertainty of this environment, while making investments for the future.
While we expect similar challenges to continue for at least the first half of 2021, we are confident that the strength and resilience of the Skechers brand and the execution of our growth strategy focused on expanding our international footprint and increasing our direct-to-consumer relationships will deliver shareholder value.
Now, let's turn to the fourth quarter results.
Sales in the quarter totaled $1.32 billion, a decrease of $6 million or half of a 0.05% below the prior year.
We believe that this is a notable accomplishment when considering both the current operating environment and last year represented a fourth quarter sales record for the company.
On a constant currency basis, sales decreased $33.5 million or 2.5%.
Domestic wholesale sales increased 1.2% or 3.5 million, fueled by broad strength across customer types and encouraging consumer sell-through in multiple categories.
International wholesale sales increased 2.5% in the quarter.
Our subsidiaries were up 12.7%, led by Latin America and Europe, which grew 29.9%, and 22.9% respectively.
Our joint ventures were up 19.4% in the quarter.
China sales grew 29.7%, driven by strong e-commerce channel performance, particularly around Singles' Day and December's 12/12 event.
These increases were offset by our distributor business, which as expected, decreased 57.9% or $72.6 million in the quarter, reflecting acute challenges in several distributor managed markets.
Direct-to-consumer sales decreased 6.4%, the result of a 7.6% decrease domestically and a 4.4% decrease internationally, reflecting both challenged consumer traffic trend and the impact of temporary store closures in operating our restrictions.
However, these results were partially offset by another strong increase in our domestic e-commerce business of 142.7%.
Gross profit was $648.4 million up $10.7 million compared to prior year.
Gross Margin increased over 100 basis points versus the prior year, primarily driven by a favorable mix of international and online sales and an increase in domestic wholesale average selling price, where higher full price sell through of several of our innovative platforms like Arch Fit and Max Cushioning drove average selling prices higher.
Total operating expenses increased by $47.4 million or 8.6% to $595.7 million in the quarter.
Selling expenses increased by $9.2 million or 10.4% to $97.9 million, primarily due to an increase in domestic demand creation through digital advertising channels.
General and Administrative expenses increased by $38.1 million or 8.3% to $497.8 million, which was primarily the result of volume driven expenses in warehouse and distribution for both our international and domestic e-commerce businesses.
Earnings from operations was $57.7 million versus prior earnings of $94.1 million.
Net earnings were $53.3 million or $0.34 per diluted share on 155.4 million diluted shares outstanding.
Net income included a one-time, discrete tax benefit of $15.9 million.
Excluding the effects of this one-time tax benefit adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.24.
These compared to prior year net income of $59.5 million or $0.39 per diluted share on 154.6 million diluted shares outstanding.
Our effective income tax rate for the quarter was a negative 14%.
And now turning to our balance sheet.
We ended the quarter with $1.37 billion in cash and cash equivalents, which was an increase of $545.9 million or 66.2% from December 31, 2019.
The inventories, primarily reflects the company's outstanding borrowings of $452.5 million on a senior unsecured credit facility.
However, even net of those borrowings and nearly $310 million in capital expenditures, cash and cash equivalents grew by over $90 million.
Trade accounts receivable at quarter end were $619.8 million, a decrease of 4% or $25.5 million from the prior year end.
The decrease in accounts receivable was primarily due to lower distributor sales.
Total inventory was $1.02 billion, a decrease of 5% or $53.1 million from December 31, 2019.
The decrease in year-over-year inventory levels is largely attributable to lower domestic and European inventories, partially offset by higher inventories in China to support sales growth.
China inventories declined versus the third quarter.
Overall, we feel confident about our inventory position and continue to actively manage our supply to meet customer demand positioning the business constructively for the balance of this year.
Total debt including both current and long-term portions were $735 million at December 31, 2020 compared to $121 million at December 31, 2019.
The increase primarily reflects the drawdown of our senior unsecured credit facility in the first quarter of 2020.
Capital expenditures for the fourth quarter were $96.7 million, of which $48.9 million related to the expansion of our joint venture owned domestic distribution center, $13.9 million related to investments in retail technologies and stores, $11.4 million related to our new distribution center in China, and $7 million related to our new corporate offices in California.
Our ongoing capital investments remains focused on our strategic priorities, enhancing our direct-to-consumer capabilities and augmenting our global distribution infrastructure.
In 2021, we expect total capital expenditures to be between $275 and $325 million.
The fourth quarter, like all of 2020 was a challenge.
However, we saw many encouraging trends our performance.
Our brand strength, distinctive and compelling value proposition, and healthy balance sheet gives us continued competence that Skechers is poised for a return to growth in 2021 and beyond.
However, due to the continued uncertainty in the retail marketplace, we will not be providing guidance this quarter, as the environment remains too unpredictable to forecast reliably.
A year ago, Skechers achieved a new fourth quarter sales record, while the brand and business trends across all segments were exceptionally strong.
Now as we continue to face challenges due to the ongoing health crisis, our fourth quarter sales increased only a 0.5% to 1% from the prior year record.
This important accomplishment was the result of the continued demand for Skechers product, the diversity of our distribution model, and our efforts to drive value by maximizing revenue and efficiently managing inventory.
Skechers brand strength was most notable in our online business with strong triple digit growth, as well as meaningful growth in our domestic wholesale business, and in many of our biggest international markets, including China, Germany and the United Kingdom.
We continue to see our products resonating with consumers with comfort, value and style at the forefront of our product design.
We are a key footwear brand during these difficult times.
We have an exceptionally strong balance sheet and ample liquidity both important to our success in the quarter and to position ourselves for future growth.
Our backlogs have improved across many distribution channels, a positive sign for many countries.
We believe our business will continue to be impacted by the global pandemic in the first half of 2021.
Though we are cautious through the global health crisis, we remain confident in our strategic initiatives, the relevance of our brands and our efforts to develop new product innovations and the many opportunities for growth in both the near and long-term.

user
compname reports q4 earnings per share of $0.34.
q4 earnings per share $0.34.
q4 sales $1.32 billion versus refinitiv ibes estimate of $1.31 billion.
qtrly china sales grew 29.7% year-over-year.
qtrly domestic wholesale sales grew 1.2% year-over-year.
not providing further financial guidance at this time.

assistant