Department store chain Macy's Inc reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss on Wednesday, pointing to strong sales at its Bloomingdale's stores and online.

Macy's net loss narrowed to $35 million, or 8 cents a share, in the third quarter ended October 31, from $44 million, or 10 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items such as $205 million in restructuring costs, it posted a loss of 3 cents a share.

Macy's reported sales fell 3.9 percent to $5.28 billion in the third quarter.

Analysts, on average, had been expecting a loss of 7 cents per share and sales of $5.25 billion during the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Last week, Cincinnati-based Macy's reported same-store sales had fallen 0.8 percent in October, a steeper drop than the 0.1 percent expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters.

Its shares fell 68 cents, or 3.4 percent, to !8,75 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Phil Wahba; Editing by Derek Caney)

New york city