Nordstrom climbs as results boost retailer ahead of the holidays

Anne Riley Moffat and Kim Bhasin, Bloomberg News

Clothing is displayed during a media preview at the Nordstrom Inc. store in New York, U.S., on Monday, Oct. 21, 2019. on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2019. When Nordstrom inaugurates its much-hyped mega-store in a skyscraper overlooking Central Park this week, it will be the biggest new retail space the city has seen in over half a century. Photographer: Mark Abramson/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

Nordstrom Inc. shares rose after the department-store chain reported better-than-expected results, giving investors renewed optimism as the company enters the crucial holiday period.

Adjusted earnings per share were 34 cents U.S. for the third quarter ended Oct. 31, better than the 7-cent loss analysts had predicted on average, while the 16 per cent sales decline marked an improvement from the 53 per cent plunge reported the prior period. Income tax benefits from the CARES Act aided EPS by about 12 cents.

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Chief Executive Officer Erik Nordstrom said in a statement Tuesday that “Our ability to significantly strengthen our financial flexibility early in the pandemic was key to delivering operating profitability of more than US$100 million and cash flow of more than $150 million in the third quarter.”
E-commerce now accounts for more than half of Nordstrom’s business, with shoppers flocking online during the pandemic. Digital sales were US$1.6 billion for the quarter, up 37per cent from last year.
Nordstrom’s big anniversary sale shifted this year from the second quarter to the third, and that helped buoy results, including for digital.
Executives said that activewear, home goods and beauty products have done well in recent months, as customers keep buying comfy clothes and spruce up their homes as the health crisis goes on.
The results are a welcome bit of good news for Nordstrom, which in September had its credit rating cut to junk by S&P Global Ratings. S&P cited factors including the yearslong declines in department-store sales -- accelerated by the pandemic -- plus declining mall traffic and low exposure to the retail sector’s strongest businesses, like home decor.
SafeGraph, a third-party data provider that tracks cell-phone location information, has consistently named Nordstrom as one of the U.S. stores with the biggest declines in foot traffic compared to the same week last year.

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