Macy’s Future Crushed by Results

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 22, 6:40AM EDT

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Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M | M Price Prediction) posted another weak quarter with plans to further reduce its footprint.
The retailer has shown it cannot recover despite years-old plans to engineer a turnaround.

Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M) proved once again that it is more like JCPenney or Sears than it is Walmart. It posted another weak quarter as it continued a retreat that involved closing stores to reduce its footprint. It announced earlier this year that it would shutter 150 stores. At least Macy’s two smaller brands posted some reasonable numbers.

Revenue for the most recently reported quarter fell 2.8% to $4.8 billion. Earnings plunged from $0.56 per share to $0.22. Comparable store sales fell 1.2% on an owned-store basis. Bloomingdale’s comparable store sales in owner-based locations were up 0.8%. Blue Mercury same-store sales rose 4.3%. Guidance for the balance of the year could have been better.

Macy’s has shown it cannot recover despite years-old plans to engineer a turnaround. Its “Bold New Chapter” plans to improve operations have not worked. CEO Tony Spring said results “exceeded our expectations,” which means they must be very low. He added, “Although early days, our investments in product, presentation and experience are gaining traction and reinforce our belief that longer-term, Macy’s, Inc. can return to sustainable, profitable growth.”

Arkhouse Management’s recent bid to take Macy’s private has not worked, and investors should regret this.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.