Nordstrom Reports Higher Sales

Department store operator Nordstrom Inc. reported higher third-quarter sales that were helped by its Anniversary Sale, breaking a streak of declines in a key sales figure.

Shares, up 12% this year, rose 6.9% to $59.90 in after-hours trading Thursday.

Still, the retailer swung to a quarterly loss as it booked $197 million in charges from writing down Trunk Club, the men's retailer Nordstrom bought in 2014 for $350 million.

Earlier Thursday, fellow retailers Macy's Inc. and Kohl's Corp. reported lower sales and comparable sales, a key retail metric that removes the sales impact of recently opened or closed stores. J.C. Penney Co. is scheduled to report third-quarter results on Friday.

Nordstrom now expects 2016 profits of $1.70 to $1.80 a share with sales increasing 3.5% and comparable sales remaining roughly flat from the year earlier. It had previously projected $2.60 to $2.75 a share, with sales increasing 2.5% to 4.5% and comparable sales ranging from a 1% decline to a 1% increase.

For the year ended Jan. 30, the Seattle retailer reported $3.15 a share in profit and $14.1 billion in sales, helped by a 2.7% increase in comparable sales. Nordstrom defines comparable sales as sales at stores open for at least a year and online sales.

Sales for the quarter ended Oct. 29 rose 7% to $3.47 billion. Comparable sales increased 2.4%, compared with a 0.9% increase in the year-ago period and in line with analysts' projections. Removing the impact of the Anniversary Sale, Nordstrom said, comparable sales would have increased 0.4%.

Sales at the company's full-price stores, which account for the bulk of sales, improved 0.83%, with comparable sales increasing 0.5%. Meanwhile, sales at discount stores Nordstrom Rack and HauteLook rose 10%, with comparable sales improving 3.9%.

Nordstrom reported a loss of $10 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $81 million, or 42 cents a share. Excluding impairment charges and other items, profit was 84 cents a share.

The results are based on 9% fewer shares outstanding.

Revenue, which includes credit-card revenue, rose 6% to $3.54 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected profit of 52 cents a share in adjusted profit on $3.48 billion in revenue.

Write to Maria Armental at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2016 17:55 ET (22:55 GMT)

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