Finance & Capital Management

Pittsburgh – GNC Holdings Inc. missed Wall Street expectations for profit and revenue in a generally disappointing second quarter of fiscal 2015. GNC reported net income of $67.4 million, a decrease of 4% from $69.9 million for second quarter 2014.

Cost of sales increases were a key factor in reduced net income. GNC reported consolidated revenue of $678.5 million, an increase of 0.5% as compared with $675.2 million. Revenue growth was limited by a 2.8% same-store sales drop in company-owned stores, including GNC.com.

Atlanta – A rising cost of sales kept net income at Havertys Inc. essentially flat at about $4.83 million during the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Profit stayed even despite net sales rising 7% to $187.73 million, from $175.13 million the same period a year earlier.

Same-store sales increased 4.8%. Havertys plans to open a net total of three new stores by the end of the fiscal year.

Dick's Sporting Goods is stepping up to support a cause that will likely appeal to many of the retailer's core customers: funding for public school athletic programs.

Boston – Massachusetts will have a tax holiday the weekend of Aug. 15-16, if the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) has anything to say about it. The ICSC has sent a letter to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker asking him to sign the sales tax holiday legislation currently on his desk.

Procter & Gamble Co. has named a successor to the man who led the company's recent transformation.

Minneapolis – Dairy Queen restaurants thrive on providing customers treats, not exposing them to tricks from hackers and fraudsters.

To ensure the good times keep rolling, American Dairy Queen Corp. (ADQ) in the U.S. is deploying the cloud-based Netsurion managed firewall platform to strengthen network security and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance to protect customer data.

Watsonville, Calif. – West Marine's renewed focus on omnichannel growth seems to be paying off as the specialty retailer reported a big spike in same-store sales in the second quarter.

The California-based retailer reported net income of $20.9 million, up 14% from $18.3 million the same period a year earlier.

Net revenues were $253.2 million in the second quarter ended July 4, an increase of 7.1% compared to last year. Same-store sales increased by 7%.

The company also gave an update on its growth efforts:

Menlo Park, Calif. – Facebook is preparing a move from Instagram advertising to actual Instagram commerce.

In a call with investors, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said that the social media giant would roll out the ability to purchase items directly from Instagram ads as part of an expansion of Instagram ad formats.