Kohl's Stock Falls After Profit Miss

Kohl's Corp.'s stock dropped 1.6% in light premarket trade Thursday, after the department store chain reported a fiscal third-quarter profit that fell short of expectations. For the quarter ended Nov. 1, net earnings declined to $142 million, or 70 cents a share, from $177 million, or 81 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. That compares to the FactSet consensus analyst per-share earnings estimate of 74 cents. Total sales slipped to $4.374 billion from last year's $4.444 billion, below analyst forecasts of $4.403 billion. Gross margin declined to 37.2% from 37.5%. The stock has gained 2% year to date through Wednesday, compared with a 3.9% rise in the SPDR S&P Retail exchange traded fund and a 10% advance in the S&P 500.