December sluggish, full year outlooks slashed for some retailers
A mixed bag of results for retailers. Generally positive month for department stores, but a pretty wild range of results for mall-based retailers. More than a few full year outlooks have been cut, prompting investors to react accordingly.
Department stores fared decently with the mild weather. Same store sales for Kohl’s up 3.0%, JC Penney up 2.6%, Federated up 4.4%, Dillard’s fell 5%, Nordstrom was up 9.0%, and Saks was up 11.0%. Mixed bag of results, since even the positive gains for KSS, JCP, and Federated still fell below expectations.
Specialty retailers were generally beat this month. Same store sales for Abercrombie were down 1.0%, American Eagle was up 13.0%, Aeropostale was up 1.7%, Ann Taylor was down 5.3%, Gap down 8.0%, Hot Topic down 5.1%, Limited up 4.0%, and PacSun down 3.2%.
Target was up 4.1% while Wal-Mart same store sales were up 1.6%.
Seems like the mall stores, with space at a premium, were hurt the most by the mild weather nationally. With only so much space available in the store, and most of that devoted to sweaters and cold weather accessories, things can go sour fast when no one is shopping for that.
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