Business Analytics

Pleasanton, Calif. -- Ross Stores Inc. said Thursday its fourth-quarter net income rose 23%, in line with analysts’ projections. The off-price retailer also announced that beginning with the second quarter of fiscal 2013 it will no longer report monthly sales. Instead, quarterly same-store store sales results will be provided with regularly scheduled earnings releases.
 

Profits outpaced sales growth at General Mills during the third quarter ended February 24 and the company vowed to launch a promising slate of new products and increase store support during the current quarter.

FedEx on Wednesday reported average daily package volume growth of 10% during the third quarter at its ground division, but it wasn’t enough to offset weakness elsewhere and profits were well short of analysts’ estimates.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — DSW reported that its fourth quarter sales increased 15.7% to $594.3 million from $513.7 million for the same period last year. Comparable sales increased 3.6%.

The company reported that fourth quarter adjusted EPS rose to 69 cents per share, an increase of 35.3% per share.

Full year sales increased 11.5% to $2.3 billion, and comparable sales increase 5.5%.

Adjusted EPS for the year rose to $3.35 per share for the full year, up from $3.00 per share in 2011.

Columbus, Ohio -- DSW Inc. reported Tuesday that net income for the quarter ended Feb. 2 rose to $31.4 million from $23.1 million in the year-ago period. Sales for the fourth quarter increased 15.7% to $594.3 million, and same-store sales rose 3.6%.

For the full year, profit increased to $152.2 million, from $136.1 million in the prior fiscal year. Sales rose 11.5% to $2.26 billion from $2.02 billion.

ServiceSource, a provider of recurring revenue management, has announced that Robert Ashe, a proven industry software CEO at Cognos and former IBM executive, has joined its board of directors. Ashe’s appointment adds key talent to continue building leading edge functionality into Renew OnDemand, the world's only cloud application designed to increase recurring revenue, and to rapidly deploy customers on this new SaaS platform.

New York -- Costco Wholesale Corp. will expand its Issaquah, Wash., headquarters, according to published reports on Friday.

The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce reported Friday that Issaquah's director of economic development, Keith Niven, said the club retailer would expand the headquarters to take up as much as 1.5 million sq. ft.

The Tacoma, Wash., News Tribune reported that the company currently takes up three buildings that are full.

St. Louis -- Brown Shoe Co. reported Friday that net income of the fourth quarter was $4 million, compared with a loss of $8.2 million in the year-ago period.

Sales rose to $640.2 million from $628.9 million.

For full year 2012, profit edged up to $27.5 million from $24.6 million. Sales increased to $2.59 billion from $2.58 billion.

Savannah, Ga. -- Citi Trends reported Friday a fourth quarter loss of $704,000, narrowed from a $5.3 million loss in the same period last year.

Revenue slipped 2% to $175.7 million, meeting Wall Street forecasts. Same-store sales plummeted 11.8%.

ARMONK, N.Y. — IBM has opened its Customer Experience Lab in New York with the goal of helping business leaders transform the way customers experience their products, services and brands through the use of mobile, social, cloud and advanced analytics technologies. 

 IBM scientists and business consultants will co-create with clients to deliver systems that learn and personalize the experiences of each individual customer, identify patterns, preferences and create context from Big Data, and drive scale economics.