Macy's Reports Lower Sales in Q3, Lowers Full-Year Earnings Guidance

Macy’s reported mixed third-quarter earnings results Wednesday, with higher profit but lower revenue than Wall Street expected. From August to October, earnings rose by 30 percent from last year, to 61 cents per share, on $6.2 billion in sales, a 1.4 percent drop vs. expectations for a 1.9 percent rise.

“We are very pleased with our third-quarter earnings, even though the sales performance fell short of our expectations,” CEO Terry Lundgren said in a statement. “We knew we were up against very strong third-quarter sales growth for our company last year, and thus we had anticipated that our year-over-year comparison would be lower in the third quarter than in the fourth quarter.”

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Macy’s to report earnings of 50 cents a share on $6.34 billion in sales. Macy’s also lowered its full-year guidance to $4.25 to $4.35 a share, missing the $4.40 a share that analysts had forecast.

Last month, the department store chain announced it would open its first Macy’s store and second Bloomingdale’s store outside the U.S., in a shopping center under construction in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. The mall is scheduled to open in spring 2018.

Macy’s also said it will open its stores at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, two hours earlier than last year, to boost holiday sales.