Nordstrom Raises Full-year Outlook as First-quarter Sales Top Expectations

Department store retailer Nordstrom reported fiscal first-quarter sales this week that came in ahead of analysts’ estimates.

The company also hiked its financial outlook for the full year, citing momentum in the business.

According to CEO Erik Nordstrom, the company has been able to capitalize on demand from people who are shopping for “long-awaited occasions,” pandemic restrictions dissipate and invitations resume for weddings, reunions and other social gatherings.

Looking ahead, Nordstrom now sees fiscal 2022 revenue, including credit card sales, up 6% to 8%, compared with a prior range of up 5% to 7%.
It forecasts earnings per share, excluding the impact of any share repurchase activity, in a range of $3.38 to $3.68, up from a prior range of $3.15 to $3.50. On an adjusted basis, it expects to earn between $3.20 and $3.50 a share.

Wall Street seemed to have overlooked that the company also booked an adjusted per-share loss that was slightly wider than what analysts had been looking for.

For the fiscal first quarter, Nordstrom reported a loss per share of 6 cents adjusted. This was compared to 5 cents expected. Revenue at $3.57 billion was higher than the $3.28 billion expected.

The company lost 6 cents a share on an adjusted basis, excluding a gain resulting from the sale of the company’s interest in a corporate office building and an impairment charge related to a Trunk Club property. That per-share loss was a penny wider than what analysts had been looking for.

Total revenue, including credit card sales, grew to $3.57 billion from $3 billion a year earlier. That beat expectations for $3.28 billion.

“By increasing our supply of premium brands and fine tuning our assortment to better align with customer needs, we are achieving a better balance of price points at the Rack,” Nordstrom management said.

According to Chief Financial Officer Anne Bramman, so far the company hasn’t seen inflationary cost pressures result in a pullback of customer spending.

Nordstrom ended the three-month period with inventory levels up 23.7% compared with a year earlier.

The company also revealed that it plans to sunset its Trunk Club business, a personal styling platform — somewhat akin to Stitch Fix — that it acquired back in 2014.

It also said it will soon start to sell shoes from Allbirds, making it one of the sustainable sneaker brand’s few third-party retail partners, and said it had authorized a new $500 million buyback.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.