New York, April 7--The Easter holiday drove shoppers to malls and shopping centers last month, helping many of the nation’s retailers to report strong March same-store sales.
Wal-Mart said its sales at stores open at least a year rose 4.3 percent as customers on average bought more items per shopping trip. Total sales rose 11.3 percent to $27.98 billion in the five weeks ended April 1.
But the company signaled that first-quarter earnings could fall short of its previous forecast, with cold, wet weather hurting sales of seasonal goods like lawn and garden items.
Wal-Mart said it now estimates earnings will come in around the low end of our previous estimate of 56 cents to 58 cents per share.
Analysts' average first-quarter earnings forecast is 57 cents a share.
For April, the retailer forecast same-store sales would be flat to up 2 percent in the United States, saying unseasonable weather and the early Easter would hurt results.
Costco said is March same-store sales climbed 7 percent, beating the 6.1 percent increase expected by analysts.
Total sales at Costco for the five weeks ended April 3 grew 10 percent to $4.87 billion from $4.41 billion last year. Same-store sales at U.S. stores increased 6 percent during the month, while international same-store sales were up 13 percent.
On the other end of the price spectrum, luxury retailers like upscale department store Nordstrom Inc. posted solid sales. Nordstrom's March same-store sales rose 5.5 percent.
Federated Department Stores, which owns retailers including Macy's and Bloomingdale's, on Thursday said March same-store sales at locations open at least one year grew 3.4 percent.
Federated’s total sales climbed 3.4 percent to $1.36 billion for the five weeks
Federated said it still expects April same-store sales to be relatively flat because of the earlier Easter selling season.
May Department Stores said its March sales at stores open at least a year fell 10.8 percent, hurt by the movement of a major sales promotion event from the last week of fiscal March last year to the first week of fiscal April this year.
The company reported preliminary net sales of $1.28 billion for the five weeks ended April 2, an 8.3 percent rise from $1.18 billion in the similar period last year.
May recently agreed to be acquired by Federated.
J.C. Penney reported March sales at its department stores open at least a year rose 0.1 percent, below expectations, but the company stood by its first-quarter guidance.
Total department store sales rose 0.9 percent to $1.3 billion in the five weeks ended April 2, while catalog and Internet sales were flat.
Analysts, on average, had been expecting a same-store sales increase of 3.9 percent.
Penney had forecast same-department store sales would be up in the low to mid single digits, with catalog and Internet sales flat to up slightly. In March of 2004, same-department store sales rose 11.4 percent and catalog/Internet sales increased 9.6 percent.
Penney backed its previous first-quarter earnings guidance of 48 cents to 53 cents per share.
