Kohl’s trims full year guidance on hard 3Q   

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/15/2007 1:43:00 PM

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Promotional department store operator Kohl’s today joined the retail chorus of lamentation, reporting third-quarter net earnings of $194.0 million, down 13.6% from $224.5 million in the year-ago period.

Sales were up 4.8% to $3.8 billion, while comp sales fell 2.6%.

The 929-store chain was not exactly disconsolate, however, as year-to-date results featured a better-than-class net income rise of 7.7% to $672.2 million, on an 8.3% sales increase to $11.0 billion, and the company has thus far eked out a comp gain of 0.7%.

“I am very proud of our associates and the role they played in delivering these results and want to thank them for their hard work, loyalty and dedication to serving our customers,” said chairman and ceo Larry Montgomery. He also noted, “Our sales results reflected a difficult overall environment.”

Kohl’s reduced its full year earnings guidance to $3.52 to $3.58 per diluted share; the earlier projection had been $3.77 to $3.87.

Still, the company pointed out, “this would result in an increase of 6% to 8% over last year’s $3.31 per diluted share.”