US retailer Macy’s Inc. suffered a drop in sales in the third quarter of fiscal year 2022/23. Earnings also fell short of the prior-year level, but exceeded market expectations. Because the company then raised its earnings forecast on Thursday, the share price immediately shot up by more than seven percent.
For the 13 weeks ended Oct. 29, the group, which includes retailers Macy’s, Bloomingdales and Bluemercury, had sales of $5.23 billion. Compared to the third quarter of the previous year, this meant a decline of 3.9 percent. Like-for-like sales fell by 3.1 percent. While Bloomingdale’s (+5.3 percent) and Bluemercury (+14.0 percent) achieved like-for-like increases, the department store chain Macy’s suffered a decline of 4.4 percent.
Earnings were further impacted by more extensive discounts and higher operating costs. The net profit, which had been 239 million US dollars in the same quarter of the previous year, fell by 54.8 percent to 108 million US dollars (104 million euros). However, analysts had expected an even more significant decline in advance.
The group itself took the latest figures as an opportunity to increase its annual forecast for diluted earnings per share adjusted for special effects. The target corridor is now between 4.07 and 4.27 US dollars, after only 4.00 to 4.20 US dollars had previously been expected. The sales forecast remained unchanged. For the current financial year, management continues to expect revenues of between 24.34 and 24.58 billion US dollars.