Kohl’s Underwhelms With Earnings and Guidance

Kohl’s Corp. (NYSE: KSS) reported its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Thursday. The company had $1.58 in earnings per share (EPS) on $6.39 billion in revenue, compared to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters of $1.56 in EPS on $6.39 billion in revenue. The same period from last year had $1.83 in EPS on $6.34 billion in revenue.

In terms of guidance for fiscal 2016, the company expects to have EPS in the range of $4.05 to $4.25 on total sales in a range of -0.5% to 0.5%. Consensus estimates call for $4.24 in EPS on $19.41 billion.

On the books, cash and cash equivalents totaled $707 million at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to $1.41 billion in the same period from last year.

In 2016, Kohl’s will close 18 underperforming stores, representing less than 1% of total sales. The specific locations will be announced by the end of March.
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Kevin Mansell, chairman, president and CEO of Kohl’s, commented on earnings:

We believe that the strategic framework of the Greatness Agenda is working as evidenced by our achievement of five consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales increases. I am particularly encouraged by the 4% increase we saw between Thanksgiving and Christmas. At the most competitive time in retail, customers were choosing Kohl’s. This strength, however, was substantially offset by softness in early November and in January when demand for cold-weather goods was especially low, resulting in a quarterly comparable sales increase of 0.4%, which was below our expectations.

Shares of Kohl’s were last seen trading up 2.2% at $46.45, with a consensus analyst price target of $47.71 and a 52-week trading range of $39.23 to 79.60.

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