Nordstrom Shares Up 10% On Earnings Beat

Shares of Nordstrom Inc. rose more than 10% late Thursday after the retailer reported sales in line with expectations and earnings above forecast. Nordstrom said it earned $117 million, or 67 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with $221 million, or $1.11 a share, in the year-ago period. Sales reached $3.6 billion, down 0.2% from $3.7 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Nordstrom to report earnings of 56 cents a share on sales of $3.7 billion. "Over the past several quarters, our team has been actively addressing our inventory, expense and capital, and in the second quarter, made substantial progress by bringing down inventory in-line with sales," Blake Nordstrom, Nordstrom's co-president, said in a statement. "Those efforts, along with the strength of our Anniversary Sale and a great response from customers to that event, drove better than expected results for the second quarter." Shares of Nordstrom ended the regular trading session up 7.5%.