Business Analytics

Starkville, Miss. -- Camgian Microsystems announced today the closing of a new contract to deploy Egburt into the largest fred’s Super Dollar franchise group in the U.S. to provide company personnel with real-time actionable intelligence through the monitoring of equipment health and customer foot traffic.

Phoenix – Same-store sales rose 2.6% at PetSmart Inc. during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014. Average ticket increased 2%, and same-store transactions increased 0.6%.

Gap Inc. is raising its profit guidance based on its fourth-quarter sales and reduced taxes.

The retailer says it expects to report a profit of $2.86 to $2.87 per share for the year, up from its previous estimate of $2.73 to $2.78 per share. Analysts expected $2.74 per share on average.

The San Francisco company says its total fourth-quarter sales grew 3% to $4.71 billion compared with $4.58 billion for the fourth quarter last year.

San Diego – Early results of 2015 suggest it will be a happy New Year indeed for PriceSmart Inc. For the month of January 2015, net sales increased 13.3% to $219.2 million from $193.5 million in January a year earlier.

The retailer’s growth to 36 warehouse stores from 32 a year earlier helped boost sales. In addition, same-store warehouse sales grew 1.7%.
 

Profit for rent-to-own giant Aaron’s, which has struggled with declining foot traffic and sluggish sales, fell 35% for 2014 and about 2.75% in the fourth quarter of last year.

Conn’s Inc. seemed to be putting their troubles behind them in the fourth quarter, as the company reported a modest increase in same store sales.   The company posted a 4.9% increase in same store sales for January (in January 2014, the company posted an increase of 28.2% mostly due to softer underwriting guidelines). Same store sales for the quarter increased 1.3% and they increased 8% for fiscal 2015.   

Menomonee Falls, Wis. -- Kohl’s Corp. raised its earnings guidance for the recently completed business year, citing strong sales growth in the holiday season.

The retailer reported fourth quarter same-store sales of 3.7% and updated its fiscal 2014 diluted earnings per share guidance to $4.20 – $4.22.

“We are pleased with our fourth quarter sales as we saw our base business improve and our new strategic framework, the Greatness Agenda, take hold," said Kevin Mansell, Kohl's chairman, CEO and president.

Spokane, Wash. -- Ecova, a total energy and sustainability management company, has been selected by Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets to provide utility expense and data management solutions, as well as carbon management solutions and Energy Star benchmarking.

Kohl’s Corp. has increased its outlook for the recently completed business year, citing strong sales growth during the holiday season.

The company reported fourth-quarter same store sales growth of 3.7%. The company also updated its fiscal 2014 earnings per share guidance to a range of $4.20 to $4.22 per share. On average, 27 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $4.06 per share for fiscal 2014.

Costco’s same store sales flat-lined in January, disappointing many analysts who had expected a 1.2% increase.