Macy’s reins in full-year guidance

Macy’s Inc. posted lower second-quarter profit Wednesday and warned that its full-year earnings would be below expectations.

Macy’s earned $73 million, or 17 cents a share, in the quarter that ended Aug. 2, compared with $74 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier. Excluding two one-time items, Macy’s earned 29 cents a share from continuing operations.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 19 cents a share on revenue of $5.75 billion.

Revenue fell 3% to $5.7 billion, while same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, dropped 2.1%. Same-store sales are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.

Macy’s is in good inventory shape: Lower levels of marked-down summer goods hurt sales but resulted in better-than-expected gross profit margins for the quarter.

Macy’s said it expected same-store sales this fall to be unchanged at best to down 1%, which would result in a decline for the year of as much as 1.6%.

The company said it expected earnings for the year to be in a range of $1.70 to $1.85 a share. Analysts had expected $1.86 a share for the full year.

Macy’s shares slipped 39 cents to $20.66.