Kohl’s Corp. after the bell Thursday reported third-quarter earnings that dropped 13.6 percent to $194 million, or 61 cents a diluted share, from $224.5 million, or 68 cents, in the year-ago period. Sales increased 4.8 percent to $3.83 billion from $3.65 billion.
“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,” said Larry Montgomery, chairman and chief executive officer of Kohl’s.
The results prompted the company to lower full-year earnings estimates. Kohl’s predicts earnings of $3.52 to $3.58 a share, down from previous estimates of $3.77 to $3.87 a share.
Earlier Thursday, J.C. Penney Co. Inc. reported a 9.1 percent decline in third-quarter earnings, to $261 million, on a 1.1 percent increase in sales, to $4.73 billion.
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