Macy's Inc posted better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday and forecast same-store sales growth this year of 1 percent to 2 percent.

The U.S. department store operator reported net income in the fourth quarter was $466 million, or $1.10 a share, compared with a loss of $4.77 billion, or $11.33 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, it earned $1.40 a share. Analysts were expecting $1.37, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of Macy's fell 1.4 percent to $18.21 in premarket trading, down from a Monday close at $18.47 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman, additional reporting by Phil Wahba in New York; editing by John Wallace)