Shoppers ‘refreshed their wardrobes’ last quarter, retailer says
Nordstrom Inc. shares fell more than 6% late Monday after the retailer said its quarterly sales doubled as compared with the year-ago period, but fell slightly as compared with the 2019 quarter.
Nordstrom JWN, +3.11% earned $80 million, or 49 cents a share, contrasting with a loss of $255 million, or $1.62 a share, in the year-ago period.
Revenue, which includes credit-card revenue, rose $3.7 billion, from $1.9 billion a year ago.
Net sales rose 101% as compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2020, but fell 6% as compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2019, Nordstrom said. One week of the retailer’s anniversary sale fell into the third quarter this year, accounting for some of that decline, Nordstrom said.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected Nordstrom to report earnings of 27 cents a share on revenue of $3.3 billion.
Shoppers “refreshed their wardrobes,” Nordstrom said, with sales trends for shoes, apparel and accessories rising the most as compared with the first quarter. Sales in activewear, home and designer categories also continued to grow versus 2019, it said.
“We remain focused on executing our strategy to win in our most important markets, broaden the reach of Nordstrom Rack and increase our digital velocity,” Chief Executive Erik Nordstrom said in a statement.
Nordstrom tweaked some of its fiscal-year 2021 outlook, calling for revenue growth of more than 35% for the year, compared with a previous guidance of revenue growth of more than 25%.
The company said that in July it retired $500 million in unsecured debt due in October using cash. That will cut annualized interest expense by $20 million, beginning in the third quarter, it said. Nordstrom said it “remains on track to reduce its leverage ratio to approximately three times by year-end.”
Shares of Nordstrom have gained 25% this year, compared with an advance of around 19% for the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.15%.
