Macy's is getting clobbered after slashing guidance due to a disappointing holiday season

• Macy's slashed its annual sales and profit guidance due to a disappointing holiday season.
• The retailer also cut its comparable-sales forecast.
• The holiday season started off strong during Black Friday and Cyber Week, but weakened in the middle of December and did not return to expected patterns until the week of Christmas, CEO Jeff Gennette said.
• Watch Macy's trade live.

Macy's tanked 18% to $25.88 a share early Thursday after slashing its annual sales and profit guidance due to a disappointing holiday season.

The retailer on Thursday lowered its annual profit guidance to between $3.95 and $4 a share, down from between $4.10 and $4.30 provided on November 14. Macy's also said it now sees its annual net revenue to be flat, rather than the 0.3% to 0.7% increase it previously estimated.Meanwhile, the company said its comparable sales increased 0.7% in November and December, but cut the guidance of its annual comparable-sales growth to 2%, down from 2.3% to 2.5%."The holiday season began strong - particularly during Black Friday and the following Cyber Week, but weakened in the mid-December period and did not return to expected patterns until the week of Christmas," said CEO Jeff Gennette in a press release."In the holiday period, we saw strong performance across a number of categories (fine jewelry, women's shoes, fragrance, dresses, outerwear, active and home). This sales growth was largely offset by: underperformance of other categories (women's sportswear, seasonal sleepwear, fashion jewelry, fashion watches and cosmetics); temporary fulfillment challenges following the fire in our West Virginia distribution center; and underestimation of the impact of changes to our pre-Christmas earn & redeem promotional event."Macy's was up 24% in the past year.

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