Macy's beats Wall Street expectations in third quarter

American department store chain Macy’s topped Wall Street expectations for its third-quarter results on Thursday, primarily driven by inventory management and improved margins.

The company recorded a 7% year-over-year sales decline but outperformed analysts’ expectations.

For the third quarter, Macy’s reported adjusted earnings of 21 cents per share, exceeding the expected zero cents.

Its revenue reached $4.86bn - slightly higher than the anticipated $4.82bn.

In the period ended on 28 October, Macy’s net income dropped to $43m, or 15 cents per share, from $108m, or 39 cents per share, a year earlier.

However, when excluding specific items, earnings per share stood at 21 cents.

That decline in net income was accompanied by a reduction in revenue from $5.23bn in the year-ago quarter.

Macy’s also adjusted its full-year guidance, increasing the lower end of its expected sales range to $22.9bn from $22.8bn.

Regarding comparable sales, the company said it expected a decline of up to 7% - an improvement from its earlier estimate of a 7.5% decline.

Additionally, the projected range for full-year adjusted earnings per share was now tighter at $2.88 to $3.13, as opposed to the previous estimate of $2.70 to $3.20.

Despite the overall decline in same-store sales of 6.3% on an owned-plus-licenced basis, that still outperformed analyst expectations for a 7.75% decline.

Bluemercury reported 2.5% growth in comparable sales on an owned basis, while Bloomingdale’s experienced a 3.2% decline.

Macy’s namesake chain saw a 7.6% drop in comparable sales, while across all three nameplates, beauty and cosmetics proved to be strong areas.

“We delivered better-than-expected top and bottom line third quarter results and are entering the holiday period in a healthy inventory position,” said chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Gennette.

“Our portfolio of nameplates are leading gift-giving destinations across the value spectrum offering exclusive products.

“We have refined our gift assortment, simplified our promotions and improved our shopping experience.”

At 0755 EST, shares in Macy’s were up 9.83% in premarket trading in New York, at $13.85.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.