For the fourth quarter of 2004, Federated's sales totaled about $5.07 billion, up 0.4% from total sales of $5.05 billion in the final 13 weeks of 2003. The chain's 2004 sales totaled $15.63 billion, up 2.4% from total sales of $15.264 billion in 2003.

Besides its reported talks with May—which now owns the Marshall Field brand, among others—Federated is also in the middle of a major rebranding effort. As of March 6, many of the various stores currently under its banner, which now operate under the hyphenated names of Bon-Macy's, Burdines-Macy's, Goldsmith's-Macy's, Lazarus-Macy's and Rich's-Macy's, each denoting its corporate history, will lose their predecessor names to all become Macy's.

"We are making progress on our core priorities," asserted Karen Hoguet, CFO of Federated, during Tuesday's earnings conference call, which she said included initiatives in merchandising, pricing and marketing throughout the chain. Regarding the fourth quarter more specifically, she added that "during the quarter, we saw strength in jewelry, cosmetics, handbags and kids, and strength in private brands."