June's Unexpected Sales Jump for Retailers (COST, M, LTD, TGT, SSI)

The month of June looks to have been pretty good for some U.S. retailers. Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST), Macy’s Inc. (NYSE: M), Limited Brands Inc. (NYSE: LTD), Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) and Stage Stores Inc. (NYSE: SSI) have all reported same-store sales that are better than a year ago.

Costco put up a 14% rise in sales, compared with an estimate from Thomson Reuters of 12.7%. Excluding gasoline and foreign exchange effects, same-store sales rose 8%. For the five week period, total revenue rose 18% to $8.69 billion. Year-to-date Costco’s same-store sales are up 9%; without gasoline and foreign exchange sales are up 6%.

Macy’s reported a same-store sales improvement of 6.7% in June, beating the company’s own expectations and those of analysts who had a consensus estimate of 5.1% growth. Total revenue rose by $166 million in June compared to the same period a year ago. For the first half of 2011, same-store sales rose 6.1%. The company also raised its guidance for its second quarter same-store sales, from an increase of 4% to an increase of 6%. For the full fiscal year, Macy’s boosted estimates from 4.3% to 4.8%.

Limited Brands posted a same-store sales increase in June of 12%, far better than estimates of 3.8%. Total sales rose to $1.08 billion in the period. Sales at the company’s Victoria’s Secret stores rose 17% in the month, while sales at Bath & Body Works stores rose 5%.

Target’s same-store sales for the period rose 4.5%, beating Thomson Reuters estimates of a 3.2% improvement. Total sales rose 5.7%, to $6.26 billion.

Stage Stores’ same-store sales rose 1.8%, slightly better than expectations of a gain of 1.5%. Total sales rose 3.4% to $134 million for the period.

The numbers are good, but not necessarily predictive of performance in the second half of the year. A lot of markdowns drew in a lot of shoppers during the period. Next up, the back-to-school season.

Paul Ausick