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Kohl’s sees holiday-quarter income down 10%, however gross sales strengthening

A view outside of a Kohls store in Miramar, Florida.

Johnny Louis | Getty Images

Kohl’s announced Thursday that fiscal fourth quarter sales will be down about 10% year over year and sales in the same store will decrease 11%. However, the retailer said sales are gaining momentum.

According to a survey compiled by Refinitiv, analysts had called for a decline in sales of 8.9%.

The department store chain expects earnings per share in the range of $ 1.00 to $ 1.05 for the fourth quarter before considering the effects of tax planning strategies. Analysts had demanded an adjusted profit of 70 cents per share.

Kohl’s shares gained more than 2% in premarket trading.

More customers visited Kohl’s website during the pandemic. According to Michelle Gass, general manager, digital sales accounted for more than 40% of net sales for the reporting period, up more than 20% year over year.

“Our fourth quarter performance exceeded our expectations on all key metrics and boosted sales over the period,” she said in a statement. The company tightened its spending management and helped strengthen its financial position for the New Year.

“If we continue this momentum through 2021, we are confident that our key strategic initiatives will accelerate,” said Gass, highlighting Kohl’s upcoming fall launch with Sephora and the bet that the partnership will bring more buyers to its stores.

At the close of trading on Wednesday, Kohl shares were up more than 8% in the past 12 months. Kohl’s has a market cap of $ 7.35 billion, which is larger than Nordstrom and Macy’s.

Kohl’s is expected to release fourth quarter results on March 2nd.

The full press release from Kohl’s can be found here.

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Business

Apple Surpasses $100 Billion in Quarterly Gross sales

According to Apple, the new iPhone 12 led to a sales increase of 21 percent in the last quarter and brought the company for the first time a quarterly sales of over 100 billion US dollars.

The tech giant is the third American company to have $ 100 billion in sales in a single quarter, joining Walmart and Exxon Mobil. Analysts expect Amazon to join the club when it releases its latest quarterly results next week.

The company’s profit rose 29 percent year over year to a record $ 28.8 billion. Sales were $ 111.4 billion. The results slightly exceeded analysts’ estimates.

The strong quarter was fueled by Apple’s newest iPhones, which went on sale in October. Analysts and investors had been expecting a strong quarter for months as many iPhone owners waited to upgrade their devices to buy the new iPhones that work on faster 5G wireless networks. According to Apple, iPhone sales rose 17 percent to $ 65.6 billion. This is a significant reversal from a 21 percent decline in iPhone sales in the previous quarter.

The record results were the latest sign of the growing power and strength of the largest tech companies, which have only gotten bigger and richer since the pandemic began.

As more people rely on its products to work, learn, and socialize online, Apple has been an undisputed winner, and investors have bought their stocks accordingly. In August, Apple became the first American company to reach a valuation of $ 2 trillion. On Wednesday, less than six months later, Apple was valued at just under $ 2.4 trillion, making it by far the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.

Apple had a particularly strong quarter in China. Sales in the Greater China region, which includes mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, rose 57 percent to a record $ 21.3 billion.

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Business

Levi’s (LEVI) experiences This fall 2020 earnings, gross sales beat

Levi’s clothes can be seen on a store shelf in Miami, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

Levi Strauss & Co. reported Wednesday that total sales were down 12% for the vacation quarter. This is an improvement over a decline of more than 20% in the previous period as the weak customer traffic in the branches was partially offset by double-digit online growth.

Stocks recently rose more than 1% in after-hours trading after initially falling more than 4%.

Chief Executive Chip Bergh told CNBC that last quarter’s results exceeded the denim maker’s internal expectations and almost met the “best-case scenario” that Levi put forward when the Covid pandemic first hit the US and many companies bothered.

“We turned very hard [direct to consumer] and in particular for e-commerce, “Bergh said in a telephone interview.” Our e-commerce business was profitable for the fourth quarter and profitable for the full year. “

Levi’s global digital sales, which include online sales of its goods at wholesale partners, represented 23% of sales in the fourth quarter, up from 15% in the year-ago period.

Here’s how Levi Strauss & Co. performed in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year compared to analysts’ expectations using refinitive data:

  • Earnings per share: 20 cents, adjusted compared to 15 cents, expected
  • Revenue: $ 1.39 billion versus $ 1.34 billion expected

For the three-month period ending Nov. 29, Levi made $ 57 million, or 14 cents per share, compared to $ 96 million, or 23 cents per share, the previous year. With no one-time cost, it earned 20 cents per share, which was better than what analysts expected 15 cents using refinitive data.

Net sales decreased 12% from $ 1.57 billion a year ago to $ 1.39 billion. That was better than the $ 1.34 billion forecast by analysts.

Global digital sales increased 34%, including sales on partner platforms like Amazon.

Levi said revenue from its wholesale partners declined 15% in the quarter, while revenue direct to consumers declined 5% due to fewer in-store visits.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt normal business operations, around 40% of stores in Europe and 17% worldwide, including franchise-operated locations, are currently closed, according to the company.

“The recent recurrence of the virus underscores that the ultimate effects of the Covid-19 pandemic remain highly uncertain,” Levi said in his earnings announcement. “The company anticipates its business … will continue to be significantly impacted at least in the first half of 2021, and there is still the possibility of additional Covid-19 inventory and other costs.”

Levi stock was up just over 8% year over year at close of trading on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $ 8.8 billion.

The full press release from Levi Strauss & Co. can be found here.

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Business

Tesla’s U.S. Gross sales Slowed in 22 States in 2020

After several years of rapid growth, Tesla US sales appear to have slowed in 2020, in part due to the coronavirus pandemic. This is evident from new data on new vehicle registrations.

In 22 states, which account for around 65 percent of the new car market, 130,844 new Teslas were registered last year, an increase of less than 2 percent compared to 2019, according to the market research company Cross-Sell.

The pandemic dampened sales of all automakers in the spring and summer, forcing companies to suspend most production stops in North America. Tesla’s Fremont, California facility was shut down from late March to mid-May. Last year was also the first full year that Tesla vehicle purchases no longer qualified for a federal tax credit.

The company’s sluggish sales in its 22 states, which include California, Florida, New York, and Texas, came in spite of the addition of the fourth car to Tesla’s lineup, the Model Y, which appears to be selling its top seller, the Model 3.

Model 3 registrations across the state’s 22 cross-sell routes fell 35 percent last year to 67,638 from 103,810 vehicles in 2019. Sales of the Model Y began earlier this year and exceeded those of the Model 3 in August.

“Model Y is doing very well and is really competitive with Model 3,” said Meagan Saxon, director of partnerships at Cross-Sell.

In the last three months of 2020, 22,267 Model Ys were registered in the 22 states. At the same time, Model 3 sales were just 14,823 vehicles, a decrease of almost a third from Q4 2019. Model Y is a more spacious hatchback version of the Model 3 sedan.

Cross-sell provides a rare glimpse into Tesla’s U.S. registrations as the automaker doesn’t breakdown sales by region or country. The company recently reported that its global deliveries rose 36 percent to 499,550 cars in 2020. That increase was mainly due to rapid growth in China, where a new Tesla plant started production of the Model 3 a year ago. Tesla is also growing in Europe, despite increasing competition from new electric cars introduced by Volkswagen, Volvo, and others.

Tesla is expected to announce its fourth quarter financial performance on Wednesday.

Cross-Sell buys vehicle registration data from 22 states that they put for sale. California, where Tesla is based and where many people are much more willing to buy electric cars than other Americans, accounts for about 35 percent of the company’s US sales.

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Business

NRF mentioned vacation gross sales rose 8.3%, topping estimates

People shop for vacation items at the country store on Main Street in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on December 13, 2020.

Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images

According to the National Retail Federation on Friday, holiday retail sales rose 8.3% from 2019 as consumers used the gift season as a way to cheer themselves up during the Covid pandemic.

“With the spread of the virus on the rise, government restrictions on retailers, and heightened political and economic uncertainty, consumers chose gifts that lifted the spirits of their families and friends and conveyed a sense of normalcy in the challenging year,” said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, in a statement.

That is more than expected by the large retail group and more than double the average annual increase. NRF forecast in November that Christmas sales in 2020 will increase between 3.6% and 5.2% year over year, ranging from $ 755.3 billion to $ 766.7 billion. Americans were said to be spending more as they had less travel and dining expenses and were hoping for the Covid vaccine to be distributed.

Christmas sales have increased by an average of 3.5% over the past five years, and they have increased 4% in 2019, the NRF said. The sales exclude car dealerships, gas stations and restaurants.

The pandemic has messed up typical holiday shopping patterns. Many retailers started selling back in October and closed their shops on Thanksgiving. You have put more offers online and expanded contactless options, e.g. B. Roadside collection to reduce the number of shoppers in stores.

Even so, there were some factors that the retailer could not get hold of, such as economic insecurity and unemployment during the recession and fewer gatherings with family and friends.

NRF chief economist Jack Kleinhenz said the surge in Christmas sales was “truly phenomenal given the extremes this economy has been through”. He said the month-to-month numbers reflect push and pull of factors from temporary store closures and vacations to stimulus payments.

Ultimately, he said, consumer mindset and savings accounts inspired them to spend. He said the sales indicate that more people want a vacation that’s better than normal during a difficult year and that money has been put aside after they canceled their vacation and had fewer options to spend their money safely.

He said the desire to celebrate the holidays is great, even for low-income families and people who are unemployed.

“Vacation comes once a year and even the most economically challenged people still have an emphasis on vacation,” he said. “They will try to do the best they can.”

The Christmas sales also reflected pandemic trends such as: B. Cooking and sports at home and DIY projects. Online and other off-store sales saw the largest increase of nearly 24% year over year, according to the NRF.

Sales in building materials and gardening supplies stores rose nearly 20%. This was followed by sales of sports stores, which grew about 15%, and grocery and beverage stores, which grew nearly 10%. Sales in the health and personal care and furniture and home decor stores increased 5% and 2%, respectively.

Sales in general merchandise stores were virtually unchanged. However, sales in the electronics and housewares stores were down 14%. Sales in clothing and apparel accessory stores were down about 15%. Some laptop or pajama purchases were likely classified as online or non-in-store sales, as customers made purchases from their couches or used options like roadside pickup. Some electronics purchases may have been made earlier in the year when people were working at home and going to school.

Retailers have started reporting some of their individual sales results. Lululemon, which had strong sales in the leisure industry while working from home, forecast a fourth quarter profit at the high end of its expectations due to the strong holiday season. Comparable sales online and in-store rose 17% in November and December, according to Target, as vacation shoppers flocked to convenient, contactless options like roadside pickup. However, Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters reported disappointing holidays as many shoppers stayed away from malls.

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Business

Retail Gross sales Drop in December for Third Straight Month

Consumer spending fell for the third month in a row in December, confirming what many economists had forecast as the disappointing Christmas season for many retailers and restaurants.

Retail sales fell 0.7 percent last month, the Commerce Department said on Friday as the economic recovery showed signs of stagnation and the number of viruses spiked across the country, causing shoppers to shut down stores amid a new wave of Avoid restrictions.

For the second straight month, the decline was worse than predicted by most economists, showing that the deterioration in the overall economy in the final quarter of 2020 was deeper than expected.

“In one line: grim,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, of December retail sales in a research note on Friday.

“We believe the fear of the third wave of Covid and the restrictions imposed across much of the country to suppress it have caused most of the damage to retail sales in the past two months,” he added added.

The decline was widespread in many categories, including electronics, auto, and grocery and beverage stores, which saw high spending last spring and summer but fell towards the end of the year. Restaurant spending fell again in December as cases and closings rose.

The decline most likely also reflects how retailers’ strategies of offering vacation deals early in fall spread the holiday shopping season over months, and may have dampened sales closer to Christmas.

The Commerce Department also revised its November sales data, showing a 1.4 percent drop, larger than the 1.1 percent drop previously reported.

Weaker consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy, adds to the urgency of the $ 1.9 trillion economic bailout proposed by the new administration in Biden this week, which will increase direct payments to individuals by $ 1,400 would increase.

“This is likely the low point for retail sales as the late December incentive and the upcoming incentive under the Biden administration will improve both bank accounts and consumer sentiment,” Robert Frick, corporate economist with Navy Federal Credit Union, said in a Explanation.

However, other economists said Americans would be more likely to save their stimulus money than spend it over the next few months, especially as stores remain closed.

The retailers trade group searched for the bright spots in the trade report, highlighting that vacation shopping was higher last year than it was in 2019, with sales up 8.3 percent.

“With the virus spreading, government restrictions on retailers, and heightened political and economic uncertainty, consumers turned to gifts that lifted the spirits of their families and friends and made them feel normal in the challenging year,” said Matthew Shay, president the National Retail Federation said in a statement.

However, there is evidence that more and more of these sales are going to huge retailers who have been able to use their scale and digital skills to gain larger market share during the pandemic.

One such retailer, Target, said Wednesday that its November and December sales were up 17.2 percent year over year, driven by both in-store and online shopping. Target’s digital revenue was the largest area of ​​growth, more than doubling from the 2019 Christmas season. The vast majority of these deliveries came from Target stores.

Amazon has also said that its Christmas sales hit a record high in 2020 but has not yet provided detailed figures.

Overall, online shopping over the 2020 vacation increased 32 percent year over year to $ 188 billion. However, the weakness in retail sales in December shows that despite the surge in e-commerce, the majority of consumer spending – such as groceries, auto sales, and restaurants – is still in physical environments that remain constrained due to the pandemic.

That reality, Shepherdson said, means that despite the expected stimulus for consumers in the first few weeks of the Biden administration, spending could remain depressed for the next several months.

“We anticipate consumer spending will have problems until the falling Covid cases allow restrictions to be relaxed from March,” he said.

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Business

Nordstrom (JWN) shares drop as retailer says vacation gross sales tumbled 22%

A person walks into the Nordstrom store, which is open for business, as New York City re-opens Phase 2 after restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic were placed in New York, New York on June 29, 2020.

Rob Kim | Getty Images

Nordstrom on Wednesday reported a 22% drop in sales for the nine-week period ending Jan. 2 as the department store chain struggled to get shoppers into their stores for clothing, shoes and Christmas gifts.

Shares fell more than 3% in after-hours trading.

According to Nordstrom, digital sales in the holiday season increased 23% from 2019 and accounted for 54% of total sales, compared to 34% a year ago. And more than 30% of customers’ online orders came from the stores, the company added.

The double-digit drop in sales was in line with expectations for the fourth quarter, Nordstrom said.

“We are encouraged by the increasing momentum during and after the Christmas season,” CEO Erik Nordstrom said in a statement.

The company continues to expect a profitable fourth quarter of the fiscal year, but continues to face pressure from increased shipping surcharges in its growing e-commerce business.

Nordstrom will host a virtual investor event on February 4th and will announce fourth quarter results on March 2nd.

On Tuesday, clothing retailer Urban Outfitters reported disappointing Christmas sales due to the decline in store traffic due to the Covid pandemic. While big box retailer Target said on Wednesday sales in the same store grew more than 17% during the holidays, fueled by online gains. Off-mall retailers like Target, Best Buy, and Walmart have for the most part outperformed mall-based companies.

Nordstrom stocks are down about 10% over the past 12 months. The company has a market value of nearly $ 6 billion.

Read the full Nordstrom press release.

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Business

City Outfitters (URBN) shares tumble as 2020 vacation gross sales disappoint

Shoppers with their Urban Outfitters shopping bags in Soho in New York

Richard Levine | Corbis | Getty Images

Urban Outfitters’ shares fell Tuesday after the clothing retailer reported disappointing Christmas sales and announced that its current chief executive would leave later this month.

The stock fell roughly 11% after the close of trading, after rising nearly 6% on the day.

Urban Outfitters, which also owns the Anthropologie and Free People brands, said current CEO Trish Donnelly will be leaving effective Jan. 31 to pursue another career opportunity. She has named Sheila Harrington, the current CEO of Free People, as CEO of Urban Outfitters and will continue to oversee the Free People banner.

During the two-month period ending December 31, Urban announced that the company’s total sales were down 8.4% year over year, while sales in the same store had declined 9% due to the decline in business traffic due to the Covid pandemic. Sales in the same store tracks sales both online and in stores that have been open for at least 12 months.

Online sales rose double digits, the company said, but that wasn’t enough to make up for losses in stores. According to Urban, sales at Free People increased 1%, Urban Outfitters increased 8% and Anthropologie increased 12%.

In a virtual presentation at the annual ICR conference on Tuesday afternoon, CFO Frank Conforti said the company kept inventory levels low during the holidays, especially in stores, to avoid having to discount excess goods during the season. But that strategy could have backfired and hit store sales, Conforti said. “This may be the first time we’ve seen the negative impact of our product model,” he said.

Urban is also in the process of building another warehouse in Kansas to meet the peaks in online demand and will open a temporary warehouse in the meantime to help with digital orders.

The company found that sales in the same store across the portfolio “rebounded well” in January. However, earnings are expected to come under pressure in the fourth quarter, partly due to increased shipping and logistics costs due to the online surge.

For the eleven month period ending December 31, Urban announced that total sales were down 14.3%, while sales in the same store were down 12% overall.

Also on Tuesday, Urban named Gabrielle Conforti, her current chief merchandising officer, President of Urban’s North America division. Emma Wisden, the current General Manager of Urban’s Europe division, will lead Urban’s wholesale business.

Urban Outfitters’ shares were up nearly 15% over the past 12 months as of Tuesday’s close.

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World News

Gross sales plummeted 80%, lowest haul in many years attributable to Covid-19

A Cinemark employee serves popcorn to a customer at a concession booth in Cinemark’s Century 16 at the South Point Hotel & Casino on August 14, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Ethan Miller | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Just days before the end of the year, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the film industry in 2020 are clear and devastating.

According to data from Comscore, ticket sales fell 80% to $ 2.28 billion, a far cry from the second-best box office ever of $ 11.4 billion in 2019.

“To say this has been a challenging year for cinemas is an understatement,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.

The year got off to a strong start: the industry raised more than $ 900 million in January, an increase of 10% over the same month last year. Much of its success was thanks to films like “Jumanji: The Next Level” and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which released in December 2019 and are still in theaters in January.

Ticket sales in February were over $ 651 million, up 4% year over year.

However, in March the film industry entered a period of forced hibernation when the US was locked down to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

In March 2019, the domestic box office achieved sales of 967 million US dollars thanks to blockbuster titles such as “Captain Marvel”, “Us” and “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World”. With theaters suddenly closing, the box office dropped 73% to just $ 258 million in March 2020.

Even after the cinemas reopened, the largest chains remained closed until the end of August. As a result, the domestic box office has not seen more than $ 100 million in revenue in any month since March.

“The full year North American cash register numbers will obviously be a fraction of the pre-pandemic market, but the fact that it had over $ 2 billion in sales in 2020 is certainly impressive,” Dergarabedian said.

Ticket sales of nearly $ 2.3 billion in 2020 is an estimate and could change slightly before January 1. However, analysts do not expect this number to fluctuate much as less than 40% of domestic and international cinemas are open to the public which are capable of operating must do so with limited capacity. Not to mention that there are no more weekends in the year. This is the most popular time for moviegoers to go to the theater.

Assuming this number is correct, it will be the lowest number the domestic box office has collected in nearly 40 years, according to Comscore. According to Dergarabedian, it wasn’t until the early 1980s that cash tracking became coherent, making it difficult to trace the data any further.

On the way into 2021, analysts and cinema operators are more optimistic about the box office. While there won’t be any major movie releases through March, the recent opening of Wonder Woman 1984 in the US and Canada is building confidence in an industry-wide recovery.

“We are cautiously optimistic as long as needles go into our arms,” ​​said a cinema operator with locations in the southern United States about the introduction of vaccines in the country.

The hope for these companies is that enough people will be vaccinated by mid-2021 so that the cinemas will be fully occupied again and moviegoers will feel good again when they return to big blockbusters.

The list of films is especially robust considering how many films have been postponed as of 2020. These include Marvel’s “Black Widow”, the ninth “Fast and Furious” film, “Jungle Cruise”, a new “Minions” film and the James Bond film “No Time to Die.”

“Wonder Woman 1984 showed that the power and excitement of cinema still exist amid a pandemic, and that’s at least some good news in a year that the industry would like to take a back seat,” Dergarabedian said .

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is the studio behind the “Fast and Furious” films and has international distribution rights for “No Time to Die”.

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Business

Vacation gift-card shopping for might assist enhance retail gross sales in 2021: Invoice Simon

This holiday season, gift card spending could spike, and that could help boost retail sales over the next year, former US President and CEO of Walmart Bill Simon told CNBC on Thursday.

Payment service Blackhawk Network found in a survey that shoppers spent an average of around $ 313 on gift cards during the holidays. This is an increase of 19% from the 2019 average. In addition, 52% of respondents said they would likely buy more gift cards in 2020 than in the past.

In a Closing Bell interview, Simon said the increased spending on gift cards could initially have a negative impact on retailers already grappling with the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

“Gift cards are shaky … because you don’t see the sale when the customer buys the card. You see the sale when it’s actually exchanged,” he said. “So if you try to measure Christmas sales, you will have this liability on the balance sheet, which is not a sale even though the sale was closed.”

However, the impact of gift card purchases could be much more beneficial with a view to the next year, explained Simon, who was President and CEO of Walmart US from 2010 to 2014.

One reason for this is that recipients tend to spend more than the face value of the gift card when shopping. “In general, you see about 20 to 30% more than the gift card,” he said.

The second reason is that, according to Simon, there may be “3% to 5% breakage, which means that cards are not redeemed”. “It’s a bit of a godsend for retailers, but it will also take time for them to finish.”

There could be fluctuations as retailers realize the benefits of buying Christmas gift cards over the next year, Simon said, pointing to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Covid-19. When asked if retailers could have above-average sales in the first quarter, Simon replied, “They could and should.”

“If people still don’t want to get out, they may not be able to redeem their cards until the second quarter and it can happen later in the year,” said Simon. “But I think what we’re seeing in the increase in gift card shopping seems likely.”