Nordstrom Inc. reported a better-than-expected profit for its fourth quarter, helped by strong sales at its Nordstrom Rack brand.
The department store operator said Thursday that it earned $201 million, or $1.15 per share, for the period that ended Jan. 28. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $1.37 per share. That exceeds the $1.13 per share that analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research were anticipating.
Nordstrom’s total revenue increased 2 percent to $4.32 billion in the period, which fell shy of forecasts of $4.37 billion. The company said in the Nordstrom brand, comparable sales decreased 2.7 percent, but in the Nordstrom Rack brand comparable sales increased 4.3 percent.
The financial quarter ended before Nordstrom announced in early February that it would stop selling the Ivanka Trump brand of clothing and accessories. It cited weak sales of the first daughter’s brand. Days later, President Donald Trump tweeted that his daughter had been treated “so unfairly by @Nordstrom” and later retweeted it from his official presidential account. And top aide Kellyanne Conway suggested on national television that people buy Ivanka Trump’s line. The move raised ethical concerns but also boosted Nordstrom shares in the days that followed.
Overall, Nordstrom shares have dropped slightly more than 8 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has climbed 5.5 percent.
