Research Topic

Bentonville, Ark. -- Wal-Mart Stores reported Tuesday that profit for the quarter ended Oct. 31 rose 9.3% to $3.44 billion, compared with a profit of $3.15 billion in the year-ago quarter.

However, same-store sales in the United States declined as Wal-Mart’s shoppers remain under pressure in a weak economy. Same-store sales in the United States fell 1.3%, the sixth consecutive quarterly decline at the world’s largest retailer.

Net sales rose 2.6% to $101.2 billion.
 

Jacksonville, Fla. -- Shopping center owner and developer Regency Centers announced Tuesday it has been ranked in the top quintile of 280 publicly traded companies headquartered in the Southeastern U.S. for its environmental, social, and governance factors and policies. 

Regency received the honor as part of the first annual Southeastern Corporate Sustainability Rankings performed by Boston-based KLD Research and Analytics.

Mooresville, N.C. -- Lowe’s Cos. reported Monday that profit for the quarter ended Oct. 29 rose 17% to $404 million, compared with net income of $344 million in the year-ago period.

The second-largest U.S. home-improvement retailer cited shrinking labor expense for the improvement.

Revenue rose 1.9% to $11.59 billion in the third quarter. Wall Street expected sales of $11.75 billion. Same-store sales edged up 0.2%.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Monday by the Commerce Department said that retail sales beat expectations for October, climbing 1.2% and representing the biggest gain since March.

The 1.2% rise in October purchases followed a 0.7% gain in September, which also was larger than estimated.

Atlanta -- A report released Monday by payment solutions provider First Data Corp. found that year-over-year October dollar volume growth of activations of closed-loop prepaid cards was 2.7%, down from 8.9% year-over-year growth in September.

The First Data SpendTrend Closed-Loop Prepaid Cards analysis tracks U.S. same-merchant activations, redemptions and reloads of merchant-branded prepaid cards, including spending, gift, incentive and promotional cards.