Macy's Posts Quarterly Profit

Macy's Inc posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as it cut costs in the recession, but the department store operator's shares fell 2.2 percent in premarket trading as it offered a full-year earnings outlook that could miss Wall Street estimates.

Photo: Macy's Posts Quarterly Profit

Macy's net profit fell to $7 million, or 2 cents a share, in the second quarter ended August 1, from $73 million, or 17 cents a share, a year earlier , Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, revenues were $5.16 billion, down almost 10 percent from a year ago, slightly below analysts' forecasts of $5.18 billion. Macy's same-store sales, or sales at stores opened at least a year, were down 9.5 percent. Same-store sales are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

"Our unified organizational structure is settling in and working well," said Terry J. Lundgren, Macy's chairman, president and chief executive, in a statement. "It has allowed us to streamline decision-making and build closer relationship with our key vendor resources." ,The Associated Press reports.

“Our new unified organizational structure is settling in and working well,” he said. “It has allowed us to streamline decision-making and build closer relationships with our key vendor resources. Going forward, we expect the gap to become less meaningful as the 49 new districts launched in 2009 come up to speed and begin producing results that parallel the pilot districts. As previously stated, we expect to see some improvement in these new districts in the fourth quarter of 2009 and especially in spring 2010.” , Bizjournals.com reports.