Victoria's Secret Owner Says Same-Store Sales Rose 4%

L Brands (NYSE:LB), the company behind Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, said Thursday that its sales rose during the critical holiday shopping season.

Sales at stores open at least a year rose 4 percent in the five weeks that ended Jan. 3, compared with the same period the year ago. That's above the 3.6 percent increase analysts expected, according to Thomson Reuters.

Sales at stores open at least a year is a key indicator of a retailer's health because it excludes potentially distorting results from stores recently opened or closed.

The company said total revenue in the period rose 5 percent to $2.207 billion from $2.098 billion the year before.

L Brands Inc., based in Columbus, Ohio, operates more than 2,900 stores around the world, including high-end department store Henri Bendel.

Its shares slipped 1.2 percent in premarket trading Thursday.