(By Balaseshan) Macy's Inc. (NYSE: M) reported a 2% decrease in quarterly earnings due to an expense on early retirement of debt. Results exceeded Street's expectations, and the company guided fiscal 2013 earnings above consensus, sending its shares up 3.69% in premarket.
Earnings were $730 million or $1.83 per share for the fourth quarter, compared to $745 million or $1.74 per share last year. Excluding items, earnings per share (EPS) rose to $2.05 from $1.70.
Sales increased 7.2% to $9.35 billion. On a same-store basis, Macy's fourth quarter sales were up 3.9%.
Analysts, on average, surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $1.99 per share on revenue of $9.30 billion for the fourth quarter.
In the previous third quarter, the company posted earnings of $0.36 per share on sales of $6.075 billion.
Online sales (macys.com and bloomingdales.com combined) jumped 47.7% on same-store sales growth of 3.3 percentage points in the fourth quarter.
Gross margin for the fourth quarter marginally declined to 40.6% from 41.0% in the previous year quarter.
Looking ahead into the fiscal 2013, the company expects earnings of $3.90 to $3.95 per share, while Street predicts $3.81 per share. Macy's anticipates same-store sales growth of about 3.5%. Capital expenditures for the year are projected to be about $925 million.
In fiscal 2013, the company has announced plans for new Macy's stores in Victorville, California, and Gurnee, Illinois, as well as a Macy's Men's Store in Las Vegas, Nevada. A new Macy's will open in Bay Shore, New York, to replace a previous location. Bloomingdale's will open a new store in Glendale, California, and a new Bloomingdale's Outlet store in Rosemont, Illinois.
M closed Monday's regular session at $38.52. The stock has been trading between $32.31 and $42.17 for the past 52 weeks.