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Saks 2Q losses soar
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August 21, 2001: 6:28 p.m. ET
Upscale retailer loss meets Street estimates as same-store sales fall
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Luxury retailer Saks Inc. saw losses soar in its fiscal second quarter as sales slumped over 8 percent.
The Birmingham, Ala.-based company lost $42.4 million, or 30 cents a share, excluding special items, in the quarter ending Aug. 4. That's up from a loss of $4.8 million, or 3 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
The company warned Aug. 9 that it would see a loss of between 28 and 32 cents a share in the period. That warning prompted analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call to raise the consensus loss estimate to 30 cents a share loss, rather than their earlier 14 cent a share forecast.
Special charges for store closings and the downsizing of its direct business brought the net loss to $58.4 million, or 41 cents a share, up from a net loss of $5.8 million, or 4 cents a share a year earlier.
Sales at the company fell 8.5 percent to $1.3 billion from $1.4 billion a year earlier. Sales at stores open at least a year, a closely watched retail measure known as same-store sales, dropped 6.8 percent. The same store sales fell less in its department store unit, which includes chains such as Proffitt's and Carson Pirie Scott, than it did in the unit that includes its upscale flagship Saks Fifth Avenue locations.
The unit that includes Saks Fifth Avenue, which the company had planned to spin-off through an initial public offering before dropping plans earlier this year, saw losses increase the equivalent of 20 cents a share in the period.
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Shares of Saks (SKS: Research, Estimates) lost 19 cents to $10.51 in regular-hours trading Tuesday ahead of the financial results. 
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Saks Inc.
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