Finance & Capital Management

Kohl’s is heading into the holidays with a loss of momentum after third quarter same store sales declined 1.8% and the company missed analysts’ earnings estimate by four cents.

The third quarter comp decrease of 1.8% was on top of a prior year decline of 1.6%. Total sales at the operator of 1,163 stores declined slightly to $4.37 billion from $4.44 billion. Net income declined to $142 million, or 70 cents a share, from $177 million, or 81 cents a share.

A third quarter same store sales decline of 1% at Dillard’s wasn’t enough to dissuade CEO William Dillard, II, from declaring the company is very well positioned for the holidays.

Total merchandise sales also declined 1% to $1.42 billion while net incomes increased to $55.2 million, or $1.30 a share, compared to $50.9 million, or $1.13 a share. The third quarter earnings per share benefited from a one time gain of $3.8 million, or nine cents a share, related to the sale of a store location.

Walmart’s same store sales turned positive during the third quarter, ending a two year drought, prompting the company to forecast a U.S. comp increase of as much as 1% during the fourth quarter.

Plano, Texas -– Amid restrained consumer spending and warmer weather that dulled sales of seasonal merchandise, JCPenney Co. Inc. managed to shrink its third quarter net loss more than Wall Street expected in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, but missed projections with weaker-than-expected net sales.  

Hangzhou, China -- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which previously said it is in discussions with Apple about working with its Apple Pay digital payment service, is now reportedly also open to working with EBay’s PayPal digital payment service.  

Arlington, Virginia –- Brick-and-mortar retailers have at least one good piece of news to cheer them up this fall. U.S. same-store retail sales were up 1.3%, or $3.9 billion, in October 2014, driven by a 2.2% increase in dollars per transaction, according to data from the Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) Index and historical U.S. Census data.   

San Francisco -- Euclid, the leader of in-store retail analytics, today releases its monthly retail benchmarks report to analyze shopper activity and behavior during the month of October.  

Cincinnati -- Phillips Edison-ARC Grocery Center REIT II Inc. has acquired Laguna 99 Plaza, adding another property in California to the company's portfolio. Laguna 99 Plaza is an 89,188-sq.-ft.grocery store-anchored shopping center located in Elk Grove, California, part of the Sacramento metropolitan statistical area.    Laguna 99 Plaza is anchored by Walmart Neighborhood Market. Other national and regional tenants at the center include GNC, Metro PCS, and Goodwill. 

New York City -- Chelsea Bagel, operating on West 14th Street for the past five years, has leased its second Manhattan location.