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Nordstrom profits soar

A vehicle pulls in to a parking spot outside the Nordstrom's department store in Park meadows Mall in the southeast Denver suburb of Lone Tree, Colo. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press The Spokesman-Review
A vehicle pulls in to a parking spot outside the Nordstrom's department store in Park meadows Mall in the southeast Denver suburb of Lone Tree, Colo. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

Nordstrom Inc. reported Thursday a 36 percent increase in fourth-quarter profits, beating Wall Street expectations.

But the upscale Seattle clothing retailer offered a tepid outlook for the current first quarter, and shares were down in after-hours trading.

Nordstrom reported earnings of $190.4 million, or 69 cents per share, for the three months ended Jan. 28. That compares with earnings of $140 million, or 50 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Sales for the quarter were up more than 9 percent to $2.3 billion, from $2.1 billion in the year-ago period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 68 cents per share on revenue of $2.26 billion.

The company said sales at stores opened at least a year, known as same-store sales, increased 5.8 percent, thanks in part to a successful men’s semi-annual clearance sale.

Overall, the retailer said its results in the critical fourth quarter, which includes the holiday season, were helped by both sales momentum and operational improvements.

For the current first quarter, the company is projecting earnings per share in the range of 39 cents to 44 cents. Analysts had been projecting earnings of 43 cents to 48 cents.

•Casino giant MGM Mirage Inc. on Thursday said earnings rose 31 percent in the fourth quarter, as higher revenue at its Las Vegas Strip hotels made up for the closure of its hurricane-hit resort in Mississippi.

The world’s second-largest casino company said earnings grew to $97.8 million, or 33 cents per share, for the three months ended Dec. 3, compared with a year ago. Revenue rose 65 percent to $1.75 billion.

•In their first earnings reports as separate companies, both CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc. delivered some disappointing news to investors.

The “new” Viacom, which released results after the bell on Wednesday afternoon, reported a slump in its troubled Paramount movie studio, offset by gains at its cable networks. CBS Corp. on Thursday posted a $9.1 billion loss on write-downs in its radio and television units. Without the effect of those charges, CBS’s operating income rose 3 percent.

Still, it was not enough to get investors excited about either stock. Viacom’s Class B shares fell 89 cents or 2 percent to $41.01, while CBS’s were unchanged at $25.23. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

•H&R Block Inc., the nation’s largest tax preparer, said Thursday the costs of settling a number of class-action lawsuits and slower-than-expected business in its tax and mortgage arms caused its third-quarter profit to drop 68 percent and forced the company to lower annual revenue estimates.

In addition, H&R Block said it will restate earnings for fiscal years 2005 and 2004, as well as the first two quarters of the year, to correct accounting errors it said led to the company understating its income tax liability last year by $32 million.