Macy's 4Q Profit Up, Sales Down

Cincinnati Macy’s announced Tuesday that its fourth-quarter profits were up slightly, from $733 million to $750 million in the three months ended Feb. 2. According to the company, a tax settlement helped offset the impact of weaker-than-anticipated sales.

Sales in the fourth-quarter revenue fell 6% to $8.59 billion. Analysts expected $8.62 billion. Same-store sales fell 2%.

“While a weakened economic environment led our industry to softer financial results than initially expected, Macy's, Inc. did outperform most of our primary competitors in the fourth quarter. We also generated significant cash flow despite weaker-than-expected sales trends. Going forward, we are aggressively pursuing our recently announced market localization initiative to drive future sales and earnings," said Terry J. Lundgren, chairman, president and CEO of Macy's, Inc.

The company’s total sales for the 52 weeks of fiscal 2007 were $26.313 billion, down 2.4% from total sales of $26.970 billion in the 53 weeks of fiscal 2006. On a same-store basis, Macy’s, Inc.’s annual sales were down 1.3%.