Hoffman Estates, IL, March 15, 2006--Sears reported fourth-quarter net earnings more than doubled to $648 million, or $4.03 a share, in the quarter ended Jan. 28, up from $309 million, or $3.09 a share, a year earlier.
Sales at Sears stores continued to decline sharply during the quarter, however, even as they gained slightly at Kmart for the first time since that retailer emerged from bankruptcy three years ago.
Comparable sales tumbled 12.2 percent at Sears stores during the key holiday period, which the company attributed to its decision to forgo costly promotions and to weaker-than-usual results from apparel. Kmart stores registered a 0.9 percent comparable sales increase, their first since the second quarter of 2001.
Fourth-quarter revenue rose to $16 billion from $6 billion.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had expected the company to earn $3.62 per share on revenue of $15.99 billion.
Sears also announced that board members Michael Miles and Julian Day have decided not to stand for re-election at the company's April 12 annual meeting. The company said Miles, who joined the board at the time of last year's merger, plans to devote more time to personal matters, while Day, who was president and CEO of Kmart from March 2002 to October 2004, will spend more time on various other business interests.
Chairman Edward Lampert said the two will not be replaced and the board's size will reduce to nine directors from 11.
Full-year net income fell to $858 million, or $5.59 a share, from $1.1 billion, or $11 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $49.1 billion from $19.8 billion.
The company's reported results include results from Sears only after the close of Kmart's acquisition on March 24, 2005.
On a pro forma basis, which reports the results as if Kmart had purchased Sears at the beginning of fiscal 2004, Sears said its full-year net income fell to $789 million, or $4.85 per share, from $884 million, or $5.40 per share, in the previous year. Full-year pro-forma revenue slipped to $54.2 billion from $55.9 billion.
