Soft Guidance Trips Up Nordstrom

The company gave guidance for the 2015 fiscal year for net sales increasing 7% to 9% and EPS rising into a range of $3.65 to $3.80. There are consensus estimates of $4.11 in EPS and $14.54 billion in revenue.

Nordstrom’s comparable sales increased 4.5% in the fourth quarter, with its top-performing merchandise categories being Cosmetics, Accessories and Men’s Apparel.

Full-line net sales increased 1.2%, compared with the fourth fiscal quarter from 2013. This reflected two U.S. store openings since the end of the 2013 fiscal year. Full-line comparable sales increased 0.5% relative to last year. The Southeast and Southwest regions were the top-performing geographic areas.

The Nordstrom Rewards loyalty program continued to play an important role in reaching new customers and strengthening existing customer relationships. Nordstrom opened roughly 260,000 new accounts in the fourth quarter.

ALSO READ: Customer Satisfaction Highest at Nordstrom and Amazon, Lowest at Wal-Mart

During the quarter, the company repurchased 0.7 million shares of its common stock for $56 million. A total of $1.1 billion remains under existing share repurchase board authorizations.

In the 2015 fiscal year, Nordstrom’s capital expenditures, net of property incentives, are expected to be approximately $1.2 billion, compared with $751 million from the 2014 fiscal year. The increase relates to store expansion, including in Canada and Manhattan, and ongoing investments to improve the customer experience.

Shares of Nordstrom closed Thursday down 1% at $77.14. In after-hours trading, shares were down almost 3% at $74.93. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $78.45 and a 52-week trading range of $58.26 to $80.54.