Thomson Reuters
Nordstrom department store is shown at a shopping center in San Diego, California
The high-end department store reported unadjusted earnings of $0.67 per share against analyst expectations of $0.57 a share. Revenue fell just a bit short at $3.65 billion versus projections of $3.68 billion.
Sales fell -1.2%, but that was less than analysts expectations of a -2.6% drop.
"Over the past several quarters, our team has been actively addressing our inventory, expense and capital, and in the second quarter, made substantial progress by bringing down inventory in-line with sales," said company president Blake Nordstrom in a release accompanying earnings.
"Those efforts, along with the strength of our Anniversary Sale and a great response from customers to that event, drove better than expected results for the second quarter."
The announcement comes after a strong day for the retail industry. Macy's, Kohl's, and Ralph Lauren all reported higher than expected quarterly earnings in the morning despite lower sales.
Additionally, many of the big players in the retail industry found their stocks on the up-and-up throughout day.
Prior to the earnings, Nordstrom's stock was up 7.53% for the day, the highest gain in two years.
In after-hours trading, the stock gained another 10.95%, to $52.77 a share, as of 4:14 p.m. ET.
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