From CNBC:
For the three months ended May 5, net income was $36 million, or 8 cents a diluted share, compared with a loss of $52 million, or 9 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding merger integration costs, profit from continuing operations was 16 cents a share, up from 1 cent a year ago.
These results were lower than analysts were expecting. According to Thomson Financial, Federated was expected to earn 19 cents a share.
Sales slipped 0.1% to $5.92 billion from $5.93 billion last year, missing estimates for $5.99 billion.
...
Federated, which also operates the Bloomingdales' chain, took a charge of $22 million, or 5 cents a share, to cover costs of converting regional department stores gained in the May acquisition to its flagship Macy's brand.
"Sales in the new Macy's locations were disappointing in the quarter," Chief Executive Terry Lundgren said, in a statement. However, he was "pleased" with sales at premerger Macy's and Bloomingdale's locations.
Note the size of the miss -- 11 cents a share. While some of that was expected, analysts watching the company were also expecting it, meaning the difference between expectations and actual is still pretty important.
In addition, note that sales slipped .1%. It's not a big drop, but a nonetheless. It's also important to note Federated is the fourth largest department store by revenue. That makes this pretty important.
Considering the .2% drop in retail sales last month, this shouldn't surprise anyone. However, we need to keep a close eye on retail sales figures going forward.
