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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 (6937)	2/26/2004 8:12:05 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19256

KSS - 49.56 last - I'll either be VERY wrong or very right on this one I'm betting it plunges on earnings and guidance to be released today. There's trouble in dem hills

To: Smiling Bob who wrote (6937)	2/27/2004 10:33:17 AM
From: Smiling Bob	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 19256

KSS - 52.60 - wrong for the moment -short squeezed - They will be attempting to improve inventory control by being more conservative. They are continuing to show signs of failure. Next we will hear they were short of key products. Cut in half by year end- in some part by WMT's shark teeth Dow Jones Business News Kohl's Plans To Be More Conservative With Inventory Thursday February 26, 7:11 pm ET By Steven Vames, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones)--Executives at clothing and home goods retailer Kohl's Corp. (NYSE:KSS - News) said Thursday that they hope to avoid some of the damaging inventory swings seen in 2003 by being more conservative in ordering seasonal apparel and by tweaking the company's buying process to follow customer tastes more accurately. ADVERTISEMENT "Our planning and buying process has been adjusted in order to flow merchandise to more closely resemble the selling cycle," said Kohl's President Kevin Mansell, adding that the new tighter buying processes will "allow us to accurately allocate per store and improve shopability." In the conference call following the release of fourth-quarter earnings, Kohl's executives admitted that they had tough time in 2003 with same-store sales, earnings, and a surge in certain inventories, which have forced the company to offer deep discounts. But they also said that they are implementing plans to turn the company around, with improvements ranging from wider aisles to new product lines and tighter inventory controls. Executives outlined an aggressive expansion effort that includes opening 95 new stores in 2004 and 95 new stores in 2005. Among new product lines mentioned by Mansell are Gloria Vanderbilt and Laura Ashley home and lifestyle brands, a Daisy Fuentes line of young womens' clothes, and a children's line called Evergirl created by the Nickelodeon television network. Kohl's executives also repeated previously announced plans to introduce an in- store beauty business in partnership with Estee Lauder Inc.'s (EL) Beauty Bank division. The counters are expected to be in 250 of Kohl's stores by the fall, and the rest will roll out in 2005. Executives went on to say that a majority of the inventory problems and markdowns in 2003 was concentrated in women's apparel, though the discounts affected the company's overall profit margin. Margins in the fiscal fourth quarter registered around 30.8% compared with 32.7% the prior year and 33% for the 12 months through Jan 31. Executives said that for the current year, they expect margins to be in the 34% range. Executives later said that the company has already made some headway in reducing the large lingering inventories. At the end of the January, he said, inventories were down by 17% on a dollar basis, and 11% on a merchandise basis, compared with the prior year. "We were able to execute our objective of dramatically reducing our inventories and repositioning for spring," said Mansell, Kohl's president. He also added that "early selling of spring goods has been very encouraging." Meanwhile, the executives said that new merchandising plans, which call for wider aisles and more space between fixtures, are likely to mean less inventory will be on the actual sales floors of stores. At the same time, the company says that clearance markdowns have tapered off from the heavy levels seen in January and early February. "Our clearance levels, particularly in those apparel areas that we've had issues with over the year, are down," said Mansell. "You're only going to see that improve over the course of the next few months." Earlier, Kohl's reported a 12% drop in fiscal fourth-quarter net income. The store chain posted net income of $246.8 million, or 72 cents a share, compared with $279 million, or 81 cents a share, a year earlier. Last month, Kohl's projected fourth-quarter earnings of between 68 cents and 70 cents a share, which was well below the then current mean earnings estimate of 88 cents a share from analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call (News - Websites) . Analysts' latest mean estimate was for earnings of 69 cents a share. Sales rose 12% to $3.56 billion from $3.18 billion. But comparable-store sales, a key measure of retail performance, fell 2.1%. For the full year, Kohl's reported net income of $591.2 million, or $1.72 a share, down 8.1% from $643.4 million, or $1.87 a share, in the previous year. Net sales rose 13% to $10.28 billion from $9.12 billion. Comparable-store sales declined 1.6%. Kohl's shares closed the regular session Thursday up 94 cents, or 1.9%, at $ 50.50. In after-hours trading, shares rose 80 cents, or 1.6%, to $51.30. -By Steven Vames, Dow Jones Newswires; 323-658-3874; steven.vames@dowjones.com