Macy's Profit Beats, Sales Slightly Short

Macy's Inc. said Tuesday it had net earnings of $793 million, or $2.26 a share, in the fourth quarter, compared with $811 million, or $2.16 a share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding charges, EPS came to $2.44, ahead of the FactSet consensus of $2.39. Sales rose to $9.364 billion from $9.202 billion, but were below the FactSet consensus of $9.399 billion. The department store chain said it expects sales to grow about 1% in 2015, while EPS is expected at $4.70 to $4.80. The current FactSet consensus is for 2015 EPS of $4.83. Shares fell 1.5% in premarket trade, and are down 0.3% in the last three months, underperforming the S&P 500 which is up about 2%.