Saks Incorporated (SKS) is a national retailer operating traditional and luxury department stores. The company had a disappointing sales report for the third quarter. Sales declined about 12% with comp-store sales declining 11.5%. Management also indicated that it has become far more promotional due to the challenging macro environment.

The company's results demonstrate that higher-end retail is deteriorating along with the rest of the retail sector. Saks expects its gross margins to decline significantly for the second half of the year which points to weak sales trends and lower profit margins until conditions stabilize. We are reducing our estimates again, and we are not forecasting a full-year profit until 2010. We would not bottom fish in Saks shares at this time.

Saks' shares look dirt cheap, trading at less than book value and with a price-to-sales ratio of just 0.2x. We are not forecasting a profit until fiscal 2010, when we expect the company to earn $0.20 per share. Using that EPS estimate, SKS shares trade at about 26x. Moreover, given the recent negative earnings revisions, we would not start to bottom fish in SKS shares here.