Macy's Tempers Expectations for 2014 After Earnings

Retail

Published: August 13, 2014 9:14 am

Last Updated: August 13, 2014 9:57 am

Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) reported second quarter earnings per share of $0.80 and a 3% revenue growth to $6.27 billion. Both missed analyst estimates according to Thomson Reuters of $0.86 earnings per share and $6.3 billion in revenue. While the results seem like they are just shy of the estimates, the market is treating it as though it is a serious disappointment.

In the same quarter last year, Macy’s earned $0.72 per share on revenue of $6.07 billion. Despite the improvement on last year’s quarter, analysts wanted more.

Macy’s also expects fiscal year same-store sales to increase by 1.5% to 2.0%, lower than its prior 2.5% to 3% outlook. This is based on 2% to 3% same-store sales growth in the second half of 2014.

The company said that the quarter reflected a rebound in shopping activity once weather patterns normalized, but the outlook may not concur. CEO Terry J. Lundgren tempered much of the positive outlook comments, saying that many customers are still not feeling comfortable about spending more in an uncertain economic environment.

Macy’s shares closed down 0.6% on Tuesday ahead of Wednesday’s earnings report. The stock was indicated down 4.6% at $57.00 ahead of the open against a 52-week range of $42.18 to $61.26. Macy’s has a consensus price target of $63.68 — at least that is what it was before this news.

Update at 9:50 a.m. Eastern: Macy’s is down 4.6% at $57.02.

Update at 9:55 a.m. Eastern: Retail Metrics added an ominous note on what this means for retail ahead, for Macy’s and for the retail sector as a whole. They said, “As one of the top performing and best executing retailers in the industry, Macy’s second quarter earnings miss is an ominous early marker for retail that could portend further disappointing results over the coming weeks. The nation’s leading department store chain posted earnings of 86 cents a share that fell short of expectations by 6 cents and marked just the second negative earnings surprise in the last 29 quarters but also the second in the past 5 quarters.”

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