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NEW YORK, United States — Macy's Inc., the second-largest U.S. department-store chain, posted fiscal second-quarter profit that trailed analysts' estimates and cut its forecast for earnings this year after reducing prices to draw shoppers.
Net income in the period ended Aug. 3 rose 0.7 percent to $281 million, or 72 cents a share, from $279 million, or 67 cents, a year earlier, Cincinnati-based Macy’s said today in a statement. Analysts projected 78 cents, the average of 19 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Terry Lundgren used promotions to clear inventory that had built up as a cool spring curtailed purchases of summer clothing and the bumpy economy restrained consumers’ spending. Profit in the year through January will be as much as $3.90 a share, down from a previous forecast for a maximum of $3.95, the company said.
Macy’s “sales performance was softer than anticipated, and we are disappointed with the results,” Lundgren said in the statement. “Our performance in the period, in part, reflects consumers’ continuing uncertainty about spending on discretionary items in the current economic environment.”
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Macy’s fell 3.5 percent to $46.80 at 8:10 a.m. in New York. The shares gained 24 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a 19 percent rise in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Revenue fell 0.8 percent to $6.07 billion, trailing analysts’ average estimate of $6.25 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 0.8 percent. Analysts estimated they’d rise 2.6 percent.
By: Cotten Timberlake; Editors: Kevin Orland, Cecile Daurat
