Home Depot corrected heavily, weighing on the Dow Jones index. The leading US distributor of furniture products has reduced its sales forecast, and admitted that its steps in online commerce have not delivered the expected results. For the third quarter just ended, the group announced a net profit of $2.77 billion or $2.53 per share, against $2.87 billion a year earlier. The consensus of place was $2.52 bpa. In this quarter ended early November 2019, the retailer posted 3.6% growth compared with a consensus of 4.7%.
According to CEO Craig Menear, despite positive results following the investments made, some of the anticipated benefits for fiscal 2019 will take longer than expected to materialize. As a result, the group is now forecasting growth of 1.8% in 2019, compared to an earlier guidance of +2.3%. The new guidance would bring annual sales to $110.1 billion. The group had already issued a warning in August due in particular to the impact of tariffs, but also the sharp decline in wood prices.
Kohl’s lost -19.5% after issuing a warning on its annual results. The retailer posted a net profit of $123 million or 78 cents per share for the quarter, compared with $161 million and 98 cents a share a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share were 74 cents, with revenues of $4.63 billion fairly stable year-over-year. Revenues were anticipated at 4.4 billion. Comparable growth was timid at + 0.4%, versus + 0.9% consensus. For the year, the US chain of department stores is counting on adjusted earnings per share ranging from $4.75 to $4.95, against an earlier guidance of $5.15-5.45 and a consensus of $5.2.
In sympathy with Kohl’s, the share price of Macy’s plunged 10.9%. The department store chain also revealed Tuesday that it was the victim of a computer attack in October. On 7 October, cyber criminals entered the “macys.com” system and stole customers’ personal data, including their credit card details. Macy’s did not say how many customers had been affected, but said it stopped hacking on October 15, destroying the spy file as soon as the company became aware of the problem.
