Macy's, Inc. announced that its comparable sales, together with comparable sales from departments licensed to third parties, rose 4.3 percent in the 2013 holiday shopping season the months of November and December combined compared with the same period last year. November/December 2013 comparable sales were up 3.6 percent.
"The 2013 holiday season was successful for Macy's and Bloomingdale's as we offered fresh and distinctive merchandise, delivered great value to the customer and provided a robust omnichannel shopping experience which served our customers whenever, however and wherever they chose to shop and to buy," said Terry J. Lundgren, Macy's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "Even in a questionable macroeconomic environment with challenging weather in multiple states, the positive response from our customers during the holiday season is yet another vote of confidence that our well-established strategies continue to work for us."
Guidance
Macy's, Inc. is narrowing the range of its guidance for comparable sales growth in the second half of 2013 to a range of 2.8 percent to 2.9 percent (from previous guidance of up between 2.5 percent and 4 percent) which calculates to guidance for comparable sales in the fourth quarter to grow by approximately 2.3 percent to 2.5 percent, and for full-year 2013 sales to grow by 2.2 percent to 2.3 percent.
The company is maintaining its full-year 2013 earnings guidance (reiterated on Nov. 13, 2013) in the range of $3.80 to $3.90 per diluted share, excluding charges related to today's announcement of operating cost reductions, store closings and asset impairment charges.
The company also noted that it will forego an expected $150 million pension contribution in the fourth quarter of 2013 as a result of better-than-expected market returns.
Macy's, Inc. also provided initial guidance for fiscal 2014. Management currently expects comparable sales in 2014 to increase in the range of 2.5 percent to 3 percent compared with 2013 levels. Earnings per share are expected in the range of $4.40 to $4.50.
Macy's, Inc., with corporate offices in Cincinnati and New York, is one of the nation's premier retailers, with fiscal 2012 sales of $27.7 billion. The company operates about 840 department stores in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico under the names of Macy's and Bloomingdale's, as well as the macys.com and bloomingdales.com websites. The company also operates 13 Bloomingdale's Outlet stores. Bloomingdale's in Dubai is operated by Al Tayer Group LLC under a license agreement.
