Macy's Same-Store Sales Beat Estimates in May

Macy’s (NYSE:M) said Wednesday that sales in May climbed 8% from the year-earlier period with the help of sharply higher online sales, leading the company to raise its fiscal revenue view.

Sales for the four weeks ended May 28 were $1.94 billion, up from $1.79 billion a year ago, led by a 37.7% gain in online sales, which include macys.com and bloomingdales.com. On a same-store basis, sales were up 7.4% last month.

“We continued to see very strong sales results in May as every Macy’s stores region, Bloomingdale’s stores, macys.com and bloomingdales.com all met or exceeded our aggressive expectations,” said Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren. “We can attribute this success to the continued crisp execution of our major strategies.”

So far this year, sales have climbed 6.3% to $7.83 billion from $7.36 billion a year ago. In the first 17 weeks of the year, Macy’s comparable store sales, or those open longer than a year, climbed 5.9%. Online sales so far in 2011 are up 38.2%.

Reflecting the strong performance, the New York-based retailer raised its same-store sales guidance by a percentage, now expecting them to grow 5% in the second quarter. The optimistic view lifted its fiscal guidance to 4.5% from its earlier view of 4.3%.