News

Dover, Del. -- The Delaware Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by billionaire Ron Burkle in a lawsuit challenging a poison pill plan adopted by Barnes & Noble after he doubled his stake in the company.

After hearing arguments Wednesday, the court on Thursday affirmed a judge's ruling last year upholding the poison pill plan, which limited a shareholder's stake in the company to 20%.

San Diego -- Target Corp. was ordered by a California judge to pay $22.5 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the chain illegally disposed hazardous waste at hundreds of stores throughout the state, prosecutors said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.

The settlement puts Target under tight scrutiny to ensure that it properly disposes waste at its nearly 300 stores in California, the report said.

MINNEAPOLIS — February same-store sales at Target advanced 1.8%, thanks to the addition of fresh food and consumables that are part of an aggressive remodeling program causing more people to shop its stores. The company said more than half of its February same store-sales gain was driven by an increase in transactions combined with a small increase in the average transaction size. The 1.8% gain comes on top of a 2.4% increase in February 2010.

DALLAS -- Zale Corp. announced that Jeannie Barsam has been named SVP merchandise planning and allocation, and Toyin Ogun has been named SVP human resources and customer service.

“Jeannie and Toyin add both critical experience and depth to our leadership team,” said Theo Killion, CEO. “These appointments exemplify the strategic investments we are making in organizational capability to drive our turnaround initiatives.”

MATTHEWS, N.C. -- Family Dollar Stores announced that it will continue to implement its strategic plan. The decision was agreed upon unanimously by the company's board of directors who decided the strategic plan was the best way to deliver value to all Family Dollar shareholders.  The company also reported that it would not entertain the proposal from Trian Group to acquire Family Dollar and that pursuit of a sale of the company is not in the best interest of shareholders.  

NEW YORK -- Sales at Macy’s, JCPenney and Kohl’s surpassed analysts’ estimates in February amid gradually moderating temperatures and rising consumer confidence. However, analysts warned that a late Easter and rising gasoline prices could impact sales going forward.

Confidence among U.S. consumers rose in February to the highest level in three years, according to a Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan index, as a drop in unemployment helped overcome concern over rising food and fuel costs.

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Pier 1 Imports reported significant gains in fourth-quarter and full-year comps due to increases in average ticket, conversion and traffic. 

The company reported that comparable-store sales for the fourth quarter ended Feb. 26 increased 8.9% compared with last year’s comparable-store sales increase of 6.5% for the fourth quarter ended Feb. 27, 2010. Total sales for the quarter improved to $427 million compared with  $396 million in the year-ago quarter. 

CINCINNATI — Kroger on Thursday beat analysts’ quarterly consensus, posting 46 cents in earnings per share (adjusted for a goodwill impairment charge) that exceeded consensus by 2 cents EPS with higher-than-expected identical-store sales lift of 3.8% (excluding fuel).

Same-store sales were particularly strong across natural food, bakery and deli/meat, Kroger chairman and CEO David Dillion told analysts during a conference call. “We were particularly pleased by sales growth in our drug and merchandise departments,” Dillon said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Ever grab a shopping cart and think about the hundreds of hands and millions of germs that have touched it? Winn-Dixie Stores has, and the company announced that it recently signed an exclusive agreement with Green Secure Solutions Inc. to use its patent-pending process to clean, sanitize and protect shopping carts, hand baskets, handicap carts, food trays and other equipment at the grocer’s 484 stores.

The March issue of Fortune contains the magazine’s annual ranking of the most admired companies and this year’s list shows Walmart slipped two spots from the prior year and now occupies the 11 position.