Posted Wednesday May 11, 2011
From WWD.COM
Macy's Inc. blew past estimates with a better than five-fold increase in first-quarter profits and raised its financial outlook for the year.
Net income shot up to $131 million, or 30 cents a diluted share, from $23 million, or 5 cents, a year earlier. Profits per share came in a substantial 12 cents ahead of Wall Street's expectations.
Sales for the quarter ended April 30 increased 5.7 percent to $5.89 billion from $5.57 billion.
Macy's is also giving back more to shareholders, doubling the quarterly dividend on its common stock to 10 cents a share.
"Our performance cannot be attributed to a single factor, but rather to the coordinated execution of a series of complementary customer-centric strategies," said Terry Lundgren, chairman, president and chief executive officer. "In the first quarter, we benefitted from strong top-line sales, disciplined margin and expense management, improved credit performance and lower interest expense."
The department store boosted its annual profit projection to a range of $2.40 to $2.45 a share, ahead of the $2.25 to $2.30 previously anticipated.
