Kohl's quarterly earnings down

MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. Kohl’s today reported third quarter earnings per diluted share were 61 cents in 2007 compared with 68 cents in last year’s period. Net income was $194 million compared with $224.5 million a year ago, a decrease of 13.6%. Net sales increased to $3.8 billion from $3.7 billion a year ago, an increase of 4.8% for the quarter. Comparable-store sales decreased 2.6% for the same period.

For the nine months ended Nov. 3, net income increased 7.7% to $672.2 million or $2.09 per diluted share, compared to $624.1 million or $1.85 per diluted share for the nine months ended Oct. 28, 2006. Net sales increased 8.3% to $11 billion from $10.1 billion a year ago. Comparable-store sales increased 0.7 percent for the same period.

Larry Montgomery, Kohl’s chairman and ceo, said, “Our sales results reflected a difficult overall environment. We continued to operate our business in a conservative manner, managing inventory investment as we continued our improvement in gross margin while reducing expenses where possible without hurting the customer’s in-store experience.” 

For the fourth quarter, assuming comparable sales of flat to (2)%, the company would expect earnings per diluted share of $1.45 to $1.51. This would result in earnings per diluted share of $3.52 to $3.58 for fiscal 2007 versus its previous guidance of $3.77 to $3.87 per diluted share. This would result in an increase of 6% to 8% over last year’s $3.31 per diluted share.