Another Department Store Just Crushed Expectations

Last week, Dillard's shocked investors by reporting a record first-quarter profit. Macy's (NYSE: M) couldn't quite match that performance, but the department store giant did post extremely strong results despite the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on store traffic. This rapidly progressing turnaround should help Macy's sustain recent gains in its share price.

Macy's sales surged 56% year over year last quarter, reaching $4.71 billion. Of course, the company faced a very easy comparison. Its stores were closed for about half of the first quarter in fiscal 2020, and consumer spending on discretionary items plummeted in the early part of the pandemic.

Compared to the first quarter of 2019, sales declined 14.5%. However, sales trends improved throughout the quarter as more Americans became fully vaccinated and the U.S. economy began to reopen. Digital sales surged 32% compared to the first quarter of 2019, whereas brick-and-mortar comps fell 24% over the same period.

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Source Fool.com