Sears Loss Narrows Slightly, but Sales Dip Continues

By Paul Ausick Updated
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Sears Loss Narrows Slightly, but Sales Dip Continues

© courtesy of Sears Holdings Corp.

Sears Holdings Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) reported third-quarter 2015 results before markets opened on Thursday. The company posted an adjusted diluted loss per share of $2.68 on revenues of $5.75 billion. In the same quarter a year ago, Sears posted an adjusted loss of $2.71 on revenues of $7.21 billion. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters called for a loss of $2.84 on revenues of $5.51 billion.

The GAAP loss for the quarter totaled $4.26 per share, compared with a GAAP loss last year of $5.15. The adjusted loss excludes significant items of $149 million compared with items totaling $260 million in the year-ago third quarter.

U.S. same-store sales fell 9.6% at Sears stores in the third quarter and 7.5% at Kmart stores. Excluding consumer electronics products, same-store sales dropped 8.2% at Sears and 6.4% at Kmart.

Eddie Lampert, Sears’ chairman and CEO, said:

We remain focused on restoring Sears Holdings to profitability by concentrating on our best stores, rewarding our best members and pursuing our best categories through innovative solutions to product and service offerings. Through deliberate strategic actions, notably with respect to our promotional design and marketing spend, we have made meaningful progress in our transformation and reported a fifth consecutive quarter of improved year-over-year results. As expected, the results of these actions have led to comparable store sales declines despite an increase in profitability.

Sears did not publish any guidance, but consensus estimates for the fourth quarter call for a loss of $1.36 on revenues of $7.54 billion. For the full year, analysts are looking for a loss of $10.29 per share on revenues of $25.14 billion.

Shares were inactive in Thursday’s premarket session, after closing down about 6% on Wednesday at $20.41, in a 52-week range of $19.08 to $46.23. The price target from Thomson Reuters is $9.00 from just one analyst.

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