Kohl’s beats Street with Q4 profit increase amid falling sales

Kohl’s Corp. sales continued to fall in the fourth quarter even as its income more than doubled. 

Despite the mixed results, the department store retailer struck an upbeat note on its earnings call. 

"We are ending 2025 in a stronger position than we started, with important work still ahead of us," said Kohl's CEO Michael J. Bender in the earnings statement. 

Kohl's reported net income of $125 million, or $1.07 per share, for the quarter ended Jan. 31, compared to net income of $48 million, or $0.43 per share, and adjusted net income of $106 million, or $0.95 per adjusted diluted share, in the prior year quarter. Analysts had expected earnings per share of $0.86.

Despite its impressive profit growth, Kohl’s fourth quarter net sales dropped 3.9% year over year to $4.97 billion, missing analysts estimates of $5.02 billion. Comparable sales declined 2.8%.

In commentary emailed to Chain Store Age, David Silverman, senior director at Fitch Ratings, credited Kohl’s initiatives including reducing inventory by 7% for allowing the company to improve profits.

"Kohl’s fourth quarter results demonstrated a slight step back in the company’s progress toward stemming sales declines, with a worse comparable store sales decline relative to the third quarter,” Silverman said in the email. “The company did show better results on the profit line due to good inventory and expense control.”

For the full fiscal year 2025, Kohl’s reported net income $272 million, or $2.38 per share, and adjusted net income was $186 million, or $1.62 per adjusted share. These figures were up 149% from to net income of $109 million, or $0.98 per diluted share, and 11% from adjusted net income of $167 million and $1.50 per adjusted diluted share, in the prior year.