Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) reported third-quarter 2019 results before markets opened Thursday. The department store giant posted adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.07 on revenues of $5.17 billion. In the same period a year ago, Macy’s reported EPS of $0.27 on revenues of $5.4 billion. Third-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for a break-even result and $5.32 billion in revenue.
Earlier this week, Macy’s revealed a data breach that pushed shares down nearly 11%.
Comparable store sales for owned plus licensed stores fell 3.5% in the quarter and fell 3.9% on the company’s owned stores. Net sales fell more than 4% year over year, due in part to store closures. Operating income as reported totaled $52 million, representing a margin to net sales of 1%, compared to operating income of $147 million or 2.7% of sales in the year-ago quarter.
The company’s stock was not beaten up in Thursday’s premarket session for its revenue miss, but primarily for reducing its guidance. Same-store sales guidance for its owned and licensed stores, previously estimated at flat to up 1%, was lowered to down 1% to 1.5%. Net sales, previously forecast to be flat, have been revised to down 2% to 2.5%. Asset sales gains have increased from a prior estimate of approximately $100 million ($0.25 per share) to approximately $150 million ($0.37 per share).
Consensus estimates call for fourth-quarter EPS of $2.07 on revenues of $8.48 billion. For the full year, analysts were looking for EPS of $2.79 on sales of $24.85 billion.
CEO Jeff Gennette said:
After seven consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth, we experienced a deceleration in our third quarter sales. While we anticipated a negative comp as we were lapping a very strong third quarter last year, the sales deceleration was steeper than we expected. However, having cleared the excess inventory we faced earlier in the year, we were able to take a more balanced approach to sales and profit in the quarter, resulting in significantly improved margin compression versus the first half of the year. Our third quarter sales were impacted by the late arrival of cold weather, continued soft international tourism and weaker than anticipated performance in lower tier malls. We also experienced a temporary impact on our e-commerce business due in part to work on the site in preparation for the fourth quarter.
Shares traded down about 5.4% in Thursday’s premarket, at $14.21 in a 52-week range of $14.11 to $35.06. The 12-month consensus price target on the stock was $17.71 before results were announced.
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