Nordstrom feeling bullish

Nordstrom Inc. on Thursday reported second quarter earnings that exceeded Wall Street estimates, and also lifted its full-year earnings outlook.



The upscale department store profit’s fell to $117 million, or $0.67 per share, from $211 million or $0.1.09 per share in the year-ago period. Analysts had expected earnings of $0.56 per share.



Retail EBIT decreased $59 million compared with the same quarter last year, primarily reflecting planned technology, fulfillment and store pre-opening expenses supporting the company's growth initiatives.



Revenue fell 0.2% to $3.65 billion, just slightly short of analysts' estimates of $3.68 billion.



Same-store sales fell 1.2%, which was less than expected.



The company’s off-price division turned in a strong performance. Nordstrom Rack’s sales (online and store) surged 11.2% over last year. Same-store sales increased 5.3%.



“Over the past several quarters, our team has been actively addressing our inventory, expense and capital, and in the second quarter, made substantial progress by bringing down inventory in-line with sales,” said Blake Nordstrom, co-president, Nordstrom. “Those efforts, along with the strength of our Anniversary Sale and a great response from customers to that event, drove better than expected results for the second quarter.”



Across U.S. full-line stores and Nordstrom.com, the top-performing merchandise categories were beauty and shoes. The Midwest was the top-performing geographic region.



For the full year, Nordstrom now expects earnings of $2.60 to $2.75 per share and sales growth of 2.5% to 4.5%. Earlier, the company expected earnings of $2.50 to $2.70 per share.