Nordstrom Earnings: Sales and Profit Plunge -- But It's Not All Bad News

At first glance, Nordstrom's (NYSE: JWN) second-quarter earnings report looked awful. Sales plunged more than analysts had expected -- and far more than most other consumer discretionary retailers have reported -- and the company's net loss was slightly wider than expected.

However, the pressure on the fashion giant's sales and earnings was driven by a combination of timing factors, coronavirus-specific headwinds, and management's conservative approach to managing through the pandemic. As these headwinds lift over the next several quarters, Nordstrom is well positioned to recover and gain market share.

Nordstrom posted net sales of $1.8 billion for the second quarter of fiscal 2020, down a full $2 billion (53%) from the prior-year period. This fell well short of even the most bearish Wall Street analyst's estimate. Full-line sales plummeted by 58%, and the off-price business didn't fare much better, with sales down 43% year over year. To nobody's surprise, store-based sales fell dramatically. Yet digital sales also declined 5% year over year.

Source Fool.com