Earnings roundup: Nordstrom profits steady

Department-store operator Nordstrom Inc. on Thursday said fiscal second-quarter earnings rose nearly 1 percent as both sales and operating expenses increased.

Profit for the quarter ended Aug. 4 rose to $180.43 million, or 71 cents per share, from $178.75 million, or 67 cents per share.

Revenue rose 5 percent to $2.39 billion from $2.27 billion last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected profit of 69 cents per share on revenue of $2.38 billion.

Same-store sales rose 5.9 percent. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, are a key indicator of retailer performance since they measure growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones.

The company said sales and gross profit improved but operating expenses increased as well.

Nordstrom raised fiscal 2007 earnings guidance based on the results.

Nordstrom shares rose 70 cents to $46.85 after hours. Before the results were released, they closed unchanged at $46.15 in the regular session.

“Kohl’s Corp. reported a 15.9 percent gain in second-quarter net income on improving margins. It again raised its profit expectations for the year.

The Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based retailer said Thursday that it earned $269.2 million, or 83 cents per share, in the three-month period ended Aug. 4. That compared with $232.4 million, or 69 cents per share, a year ago.

Sales were up 8.7 percent to $3.6 billion from $3.30 billion in the year-ago period.

The earnings beat the expectations of analysts, who predicted Kohl’s would earn 82 cents a share on sales of $3.6 billion, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.

Same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year, rose 1.3 percent in the quarter, the company said. Same-store sales are an important indicator of a retailer’s health.

“Hewlett-Packard Co.’s third-quarter sales and profit breezed past Wall Street’s estimates as the technology bellwether continued to cash in on healthy sales of laptop computers and lucrative printing ink. Shares rose more than 2 percent on a higher financial forecast.

HP’s net income for the quarter ended July 31 was $1.78 billion, or 66 cents per share, a 29 percent jump from the $1.38 billion, or 48 cents per share in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time charges, the Palo Alto-based company earned 71 cents per share, 5 cents higher than the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Sales for the period were $25.38 billion, a 16 percent increase from the $21.89 billion recorded a year ago. Revenues were more than $1 billion higher than the $24.09 billion in sales that analysts had been predicting.

“Department store retailer J.C. Penney Co. said Thursday that its second-quarter profit edged up nearly 2 percent, beating Wall Street expectations, though it said customers are worried about high energy prices and the weak housing market.

The company raised its outlook for the full year by a cent per share.

Penney shares rose $1.57, or 2.5 percent, in trading Thursday to $64.14.

The company said net income for the three months that ended Aug. 4 rose to $182 million, or 81 cents per share, from $179 million, or 76 cents per share, a year ago.

Earnings from continuing operations for the quarter ended Aug. 4 increased to 78 cents per share. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected Penney to earn 77 cents per share.

Company officials said the back-to-school season was off to a good start, and that sales were strong for women’s apparel, including Penney’s private-label lingerie brand Ambrielle and Liz & Co. and Concepts by Claiborne.

Penney raised its outlook for full-year profit to $5.50 per share from $5.49 per share after beating second-quarter expectations by a cent per share. Analysts were forecasting $5.48 per share for the year.

“Fannie Mae, the largest U.S. buyer and guarantor of home mortgages, reported Thursday that its profit dropped 36 percent in 2006 and said it expects higher delinquencies and credit losses this year from the turbulence in the mortgage market.

The government-sponsored company, which finances or guarantees one of every five home loans in the United States, said it earned $4.1 billion, or $3.65 a share in 2006, down from $6.35 billion, or $6.01 a share, in 2005 and $5 billion, or $4.94 a share, in 2004.

The decline in profit in 2006 was expected, mainly because of reductions in interest income and ballooning costs from Fannie Mae’s reworking of its accounting following a $6.3 billion scandal that came to light in September 2004.

Last year’s earnings also were eroded by increased credit losses from the decline in home prices — especially in parts of the Midwest, the company said.