Department store chain, Macy’s Inc. (NYSE:M) reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fiscal second quarter, thanks to its soaring same stores sales and strong online business.
Announcing quarterly results on Wednesday, the company said net income stood at $279 million or $0.67 per share, up from $241 million or $0.55 per share in the corresponding period of the last year.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average forecasted earnings of 65 cents a share, excluding onetime expenses.
Net sales in the second quarter rose 3 percent to $6.12 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $6.10 billion. Gross margin came at 41.9 percent of net sales, compared to 41.8 percent a year earlier.
Same-store sales for the quarter jumped 3% from last year. Same-store sales are considered as a perfect gauge of retail industry performance since it excludes those stores that were opened less than a year ago. Meanwhile combined sales from its online business units, macys.com and bloomingdales.com skyrocketed 36.1 percent for the period. The company also opened two new Bloomingdale outlets in the quarter.
During the first half, Macy’s earnings per share rose 27% over the last year’s to $1.09 per share. Year to date, the company’s sales stood at $12.26 billion, a 3.7 percent climb from the previous year while same-store sales also rose 3.7 percent.
The company also upwardly revised its full-year earnings outlook; but fell short of Wall Street analysts’ expectations. However, the company maintained its outlook on same-store-sales for the rest of the year.
Looking ahead at fiscal year 2012, the company anticipates performing better as it boosted its earnings guidance between a range of $3.30 and $3.35 per share. Earlier, the company projected full-year earnings between the range of $3.25 and $3.30. Analysts are forecasting earnings of $3.36 a share.
Outlook on same-store-sales growth, though, remained unchanged at 3.7%.
Commenting over the results, Company’s Chairman, CEO and President, Terry Lundgren said in a conference call “We are entering the fall season with optimism about our ability to grow sales and capture market share, especially in the holiday season when shoppers naturally turn first to Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s.”
Macy’s shares rose more than 2% on Wednesday.
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