Finance & Capital Management

Pittsburgh – American Eagle Outfitters Inc. soared past Wall Street expectations in the fourth quarter, helped by reduced promotions and discounts and the elimination of asset impairments. The teen retailer on Wednesday posted better-than-expected fourth quarter results and issued an upbeat outlook for the first quarter, projecting earnings of $0.09 to $0.12 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.07 per share.

Houston – A dropping cost of sales helped Stage Stores Inc. boost net income 76% to $43.72 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, up from $18.26 million the same quarter a year earlier. Net sales climbed 6% to $524.89 million from $492.54 million, and same-store sales rose 6.4%.

Stage Stores plans to close 10-20 stores and open two new stores during fiscal 2015.

Kmart and Best Buy are among the retailers that helped St. Jude’s Hospital raise more than $100 million for the second year in a row.

Kmart led all fundraising for St. Jude’s once again at $17.5 million, bringing its grand total to date to $76 million. Best Buy saw its campaign increase from nearly $1 million in 2013 to $9.7 million.

Minneapolis – Christopher Askew, president of Best Buy services, is reportedly leaving the company. According to the Wall Street Journal, Askew is leaving his post overseeing Best Buy’s Geek Squad technology services offering less than two years after he was hired from NCR Corp.

An internal company memo indicates CEO Hubert Joly will oversee the services organization on an interim basis. Best Buy confirmed the memo. The retailer has been expanding its showroom floor space as services sales have been declining.
 

Slow and steady is winning the race at AutoZone where the company just notched its 34th consecutive quarter of double digit profit growth and has a stock pricing heading toward $700.

AutoZone’s sales in the company’s second quarter ended Feb. 14, increased 7.7% to slightly more than $2.1 billion and same store sales increased 3.6%. Net income increased 9.8% to $218 million with an aggressive stock buyback program enabling earnings per share to advance 15.6% to $6.51 cents from $5.63 the prior year and well ahead of analysts’ estimate of $6.38.

Minneapolis – Strong sales of high-margin consumer electronics and TVs during the holiday season, as well as declining expenses, helped Best Buy Inc. beat Wall Street expectations for profit in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2015. The retailer on Tuesday reported that net income surged 77% to $519 million from $293 million in the year ago period.

Justice continues to be a drain on the Ascena Retail Group, as the company reported a drop in same store sales for the second quarter.

The operator of Justice, as well as stores under the Lane Bryant, Cacique, Maurices, Dressbarn, and Catherines brands, said combined same store sales declined 2% during its second quarter of fiscal 2015 ended Jan. 25 due to sluggish sales at Justice.

Hangzhou, China – Alibaba Group holdings Inc. is reportedly saying it did nothing wrong after the government of Taiwan ordered the Chinese e-commerce giant to leave the country by August 2015. According to Bloomberg, the Taiwan Investment Committee gave the order because it says Alibaba tried to skirt Taiwanese restrictions on mainland China-based companies doing business there by registering its local affiliate as a Singapore-based firm.