New York, NY, January 6—-The nation’s top retailers including Wal-Mart, Federated Department Stores and Best Buy posted December sales gains after steep discounts spurred a late surge in holiday shopping.
Results at upscale chains, including a 6 percent gain at Saks, topped those of discounters such as Wal-Mart, the companies said today. Wal-Mart's sales at U.S. stores open at least a year grew 3 percent.
Mid-price chains including Macy's and Sears dropped prices as much as 70 percent in the week before Christmas, attracting customers who put off shopping earlier in the season. That boosted sales in December, when retailers get about 15 percent of revenue, and may have damped the retailers' profits.
Target's sales rose 5.1 percent, higher than its forecast, helped by promotions. Profit from continuing operations may increase less than some analysts expect, the company said in a statement today. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial is 94 cents a share.
December sales at U.S. retailers probably rose as much as 3.5 percent, their second-best performance of the past five years, according to an estimate by the New York-based International Council of Shopping Centers, which monitors about 75 chains. Sales for the November-December period increased as much as 3 percent, ICSC said, after a less-than-expected 1.8 percent gain in November.
Many retailers beat analysts' estimates. U.S. sales at Costco rose 8 percent, above the Thomson Financial forecast of a 6.3 percent increase. Federated, posted a 2.3 percent gain, above analysts forecast of 1.1 percent.
J.C. Penney sales fell 1.2 percent after analysts predicted a decline of 2.7 percent. Kohl's had a sales gain of 3.1 percent, beating analysts' estimates of 1.8 percent. Kohl's expects fourth-quarter earnings to be at low end of its forecast for earnings of 93 cents to 97 cents.
Best Buy, the largest U.S. electronics chain, posted a 2.5 percent gain, less than its forecast for an increase as much as 5 percent. Sales at Sears fell 3 percent, missing analyst estimate for an increase of 0.2 percent, hurt by declines in sales in apparel and at the home group.
Nordstrom 9.3 percent gain, which beat the forecast. Saks beat analysts' estimates with sales rising 6 percent, boosted by a 12 percent increase at its Saks Fifth Avenue stores.
December sales at U.S. retailers increased 4.3 percent in 2003, 1 percent in 2002, 2.2 percent in 2001 and 0.7 in 2000, according to ICSC. The 6.7 percent rise in 1999 was the biggest in seven years.
