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Strategies & Market Trends : Can you beat 50% per month? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (5992)	8/15/2003 11:55:40 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Respond to of 19256

KSS reduced earlier projections, which they were falling way short of, and made a revised "forecast" last week when they most likely already knew the numbers. Reuters Kohl's Earnings Fall, but Beat Estimates Friday August 15, 10:55 am ET By Angela Moore NEW YORK (Reuters) - Retailer Kohl's Corp. (NYSE:KSS - News) on Thursday reported a 9.8 percent drop in quarterly profits, hurt by rainy weather and an inventory bulge, but managed to beat its lowered estimates. ADVERTISEMENT The Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin company, which runs a fast-growing chain of department stores, backed analysts' estimates for the third quarter, and forecast tighter inventories for the rest of the year. "I'm impressed with their ability to control costs which is what we're attributing the upside surprise to," said Gary Holdsworth, and analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities. Net income for the second quarter ended on Aug. 2 fell to $112.1 million, or 33 cents per share, from $124.4 million, or 36 cents per share, a year earlier. Earnings were a penny better than the average estimate of analysts polled by Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Plc, who expected second-quarter profit of 32 cents per share. Last week, Kohl's forecast second quarter earnings at the high end of the 30 cents to 32 cents per share range. In May, the company had forecast second-quarter earnings of 38 cents to 42 cents per share. Kohl's said on its conference call that it expects its third-quarter same-store sales to be up 3 percent. It also forecast third quarter earnings of 44 cents per share, in line with Wall Street estimates. The company, which struggled the first half of the year with an inventory glut, said it planned to end the third quarter with inventories increasing in the mid-teen percentage levels, up in the single digits by year end. "We're not happy with the second quarter or the first half sales performance overall, but we are pleased with the liquidation of our clearance and the repositioning of our inventories for back to school and for the fall season," Kohl's President Kevin Mansell said on the conference call. "We are now well ahead of last year's liquidation in our kids, young men's and juniors area as we enter back to school." The back-to-school selling season is a critical one for retailers, second only to the holiday shopping season. Many retailers have noted that back-to-school sales were boosted by recent tax rebates. "It's still a difficult enough environment. The consumer is benefiting from the tax refund, but we're facing a murky job situation and a pause in refinancing activity," Wedbush Morgan's Holdsworth said. "They're a great operator and were able to bounce back from a weak first half. We're giving them the benefit of our confidence." Second quarter net sales rose to 14.9 percent to $2.2 billion. Same-store sales, a key metric of retail health, rose 1.1 percent. Kohl's said it plans to open another 50 stores in the second half of the year. This raises the expected new store openings for fiscal 2003 from 80 stores to 85 stores. It will open about 95 new stores in fiscal 2004.