Macy's Cuts Sales And Earnings Outlook

The retailer posted a third quarter profit of $217 million, or 61 cents a share, up from $177 million, or 47 cents a share, the previous year.

Revenue declined 1.3% to $6.2 billion and same-store sales fell 0.7% including departments licensed to third parties.

Wall Street had expected earnings of 50 cents a share on revenue of $6.34 billion.

Macy's now expects earnings of between $4.25 and $4.35 a share for the year, down from $4.40 to $4.50 a share.

The company also lowered its same-store sales growth forecast from 1.5% to 2% down to 0.7% to 1%.

"We knew we were up against very strong third-quarter sales growth for our company last year, and thus we had anticipated that our year-over-year comparison would be lower," Macy's Chief Executive Terry J. Lundgren said. "Even so, sales did not live up to our expectations in the quarter."