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Sears Sees Flat Quarter

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL-The old Sears Roebuck and Co. seems to be going out with a whimper.

By Dees Stribling | Updated on January 27, 2005

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL-In what will may its last quarterly report as Sears Roebuck and Co., the storied retail giant turned in sluggish results for its fiscal fourth quarter of 2004 (ended Dec. 31). Comp-store domestic sales decreased 0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2004, with sales increases in October and November offset by a decline in December. Merchandise sales and services revenues for the 2004 fourth quarter were $9.6 billion, compared with $10.2 billion in the prior year period.

Fourth-quarter 2004 net income for the retailer was $378 million, compared with net income of $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2003, but last year’s figures were pushed vastly upward by the sale of both Sears’ credit business and National Tire & Battery, both of which were closed in the fourth quarter of 2003. The 4Q 2004 income represented $1.76 per share, slightly ahead of analysts’ forecasts.

Sears Canada—the retailer has 122 department stores, and 47 Sears Home stores, in that country—also turned in a sluggish fourth quarter. Overall, on a Canadian dollar basis, Sears Canada comparable store sales decreased 1.7% in the fourth quarter of 2004, compared with 4Q 2003. Still, Brent Hollister, president and CEO Sears Canada, noted optimistically in Thursday’s Sears Canada earnings call that “we have a strong franchise that we know is capable of delivering better results than we experienced in 2004.”

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