US based apparel retailer and NYSE listed, Macy’s said its third fiscal quarter ending November 1, 2014, earnings per diluted share jumped 30 per cent from the year ago period, to 61 cents.
Total sales in the third quarter of 2014 were however down 1.3 per cent to $6.195 billion from total sales of $6.276 billion in the third quarter of 2013.
Comparable sales together with comparable sales of departments licensed to third parties also fell 0.7 per cent in the third quarter of 2014 over same quarter of 2013.
Third quarter comparable sales exclusive of licensed businesses were down 1.4 per cent in 2014 compared with a year ago quarter.
Macy’s, Inc.’s operating income totalled to $422 million or 6.8 per cent of sales for the quarter ended November 1, 2014, up from $360 million or 5.7 per cent of sales for the same period last year.
Net cash provided by operating activities amounted to $777 million in the first three quarters of 2014 versus $819 million in the first three quarters of 2013.
Macy’s said net cash used for investing activities in the first nine months of 2014 touched $596 million, rising from $541 million from the prior year quarter.
While, net cash used for financing activities in the first three quarters of 2014 reached $1.406 billion, up from $943 million in the corresponding three quarters of 2013.
Macy’s repurchased approximately 9.0 million shares of its common stock for a total of approximately $534 million, in the third quarter of 2014.
In the fiscal year to date, the retailer repurchased approximately 25.3 million shares of its common stock for approximately $1.48 billion.
And as of November 1, 2014, it had remaining authorization to repurchase up to approximately $1.45 billion of its common stock.
Macy’s has also revised its full year guidance. It now forecasts earnings per diluted share for the full-year 2014 to be in the range of $4.25 to $4.35 from its earlier guidance of $4.40 to $4.50.
It also now expects comparable sales together with comparable sales of departments licensed to third parties to increase by 1.2 per cent to 1.5 per cent, down from previous guidance of 2 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
“We are very pleased with our third quarter earnings, even though the sales performance fell short of our expectations,” CEO, Terry Lundgren said.
He added, “However, we were able to maintain gross margin flat to last year and reduced SG&A expense, even excluding the timing benefit of some items, including the sale of certain assets.” (AR)
