Corporate Governance

Mooresville, N.C. – Customer interest in core home improvement categories helped lift profits at Lowe’s Companies Inc. during the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013.

Lowe’s fourth quarter earnings rose 6% to $306 million from $282 million in the year-ago period. Full year net earnings climbed 17% to $2.29 billion from $1.96 billion.

New York – Barnes & Noble swung from a net loss in the third quarter of fiscal 2013 to a net profit in the third quarter of fiscal 2014, even as revenues dropped.

Net earnings in the third quarter totaled $63.2 million, compared to a $3.7 million net loss in the same period a year earlier. Total revenues dropped 10.3% to $1.99 billion from $2.22 billion. A 50% revenue drop in the company’s Nook segment helped drive the overall decline, although all the company’s retail and college verticals also reported revenue drops.

New Albany, Ohio – Abercrombie & Fitch Co.'s fourth-quarter net income plunged 58%, less than Wall Street expected, amid several one-time charges, including costs tied to the closure of its Gilly Hicks’ stores. The company’s board also approved a $150 million accelerated share repurchase plan, to be executed during the first quarter.

For the quarter ended Feb 1, Abercrombie’s income fell to $66.1 million from $157.2 in the year-ago period. For the full year, income declined 77% to $54.6 million from $237 million last year.

El Segundo, Calif. – Big 5 Sporting Goods Corp. released mostly positive financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013. During the fourth quarter, net income rose 30% to $5.2 million from $4 million compared to the same period in the prior year.

New York – Aeropostale Inc. is reportedly working with investment bank Barclays plc to investigate options including selling the company to a private equity firm or a regular equity sale. According to Bloomberg, Aeropostale CEO Tom Johnson is already trying to reverse four consecutive quarters of losses through new products and the closure of up to 40 stores.

In November 2013, major investor Crescendo Partners sent Aeropostale a letter demanding the company sell itself. Aeropostale and Barclays did not comment in the article.

Tampa, Fla. -- The global market for advanced services based on mobile context insights could be worth as much as $44 billion annually. A research report for Syniverse from economists at the Surrey Energy Economics Center (SEEC) values the market for operators providing services to brands based on end-user context data and proposes a sustainable long-term market structure with balanced, mutual benefit between operators, brands and consumers.

New York -- Bryan Sartin, director of Verizon’s RISK Team, will discuss the link between security breaches and automated building management systems at Chain Store Age’s 50th annual SPECS Conference, March 9-12, 2014
Gaylord Texan Hotel Grapevine, Texas.

Sartin heads the Research, Investigations, Solutions, Knowledge (RISK) Team at Verizon Enterprise Solutions. The Team has 106 full-time investigation staff who come from law enforcement, military, military intelligence, and specialty engineering.

New York -- Retailers making headlines with store expansion plans include new players as well as global powerhouses. Just in the starting gate is Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, a new specialty grocery format featuring value-priced healthy and organic offerings. The company plans to open over 60 stores throughout the Midwest during the next five years.

Target continues to cope with the fallout of a data breach, which, as expected, hurt the company’s fourth-quarter results.

The company incurred $61 million in expenses related to the breach during the quarter, but was able to bring the total impact to $17 million after applying a $44 million insurance payment.

But the retailer added that it is not only unable to estimate future expenses related to the data breach but also warned that those costs may adversely affect operations results in the first quarter and full-year 2014 and future periods.