Regis Corp. continues to struggle, reporting a $2.1 million loss for its fiscal third quarter.

Officials of the Edina-based company said profits fell because of a tax change, drop in same-store sales, rising labor costs and new promotional expenses.

Investors were not happy and forced Regis' stock down $2.33 to close Thursday at $13.61 a share. The stock is way off its 52-week high of $18 a share.

Regis posted an earnings-per-share loss of 4 cents for the quarter. Sales fell 2.5 percent to $442.6 million. Results missed expectations of Wall Street analysts, whose consensus prediction was a loss of 3 cents for the quarter and sales of $453 million.

While Regis disappointed the street, its results are improving. Third-quarter results were substantially better than the $4.8 million loss the company suffered during for the same quarter a year ago. The company has lost $16.9 million over the first nine months of its fiscal year. That's down from the $31 million lost for the same nine month period in 2015.

Regis, which also owns the flagship store brands Supercuts and SmartStyle, said its North American stores are seeing improvements. Cost reductions and new advertising efforts have helped reinforce management's belief in its turnaround strategy, CEO Dan Hanrahan said in a statement Thursday.

Dee DePass • 612-673-7725