Macy's Inc. Q1 earnings beat expectations

CINCINNATI Macy’s Inc. reported first quarter 2010 earnings per diluted share of 5 cents, which exceeded the company’s expectations. This compares with a loss of 16 cents per diluted share, excluding restructuring charges, in the first quarter last year.

Sales in the first quarter of 2010 totaled $5.574 billion, an increase of 7.2%, compared with sales of $5.199 billion in the same period last year. On a same-store basis, Macy’s Inc.’s first quarter sales were up 5.5%.

“The momentum from our fourth quarter of 2009 accelerated in the first quarter of 2010. Our first quarter earnings were well ahead of what we originally expected,” said Terry Lundgren, Macy’s Inc. chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We continue to see very positive results from strategic actions taken over the past two years. Today, we are much better able to anticipate and react to customer needs in each location through My Macy’s localization. We are very pleased with the collaborative relationships we have created with our vendors through our unified national organization and we are much more focused on serving our customers holistically in stores and online through multichannel integration and targeted marketing.

Based on strong sales trends, Macy’s Inc. increased its full-year 2010 guidance on April 27. The company said it expects same-store sales to grow in the range of 3% to 3.5% (compared with previous guidance of 1% to 2%), and earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $1.75 to $1.80 (compared with previous guidance of $1.55 to $1.60 per diluted share).