Writing on TheStreet.com, Brian Sozzi opined, “Wall Street widely expected dying Sears to deliver another awful quarter on Thursday, but what was received bordered on terrifying for the one-time icon of the retail landscape.” In a separate posting, Sozzi noted that the retailer had just $174 million of availability left under its $1.971-billion credit facility at the end of Q3, compared to $963 million a year ago.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL—Shareholders in Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD) got the equivalent of a lump of coal in their stockings Thursday as the beleaguered retailer reported its fifth consecutive quarterly loss and its 20th consecutive quarterly decline in revenue. The year-over-year third-quarter loss of $748 million, or $6.99 per diluted share, was up sharply from Q3 in 2015, when SHLD reported a loss of $454 million, or $4.26 per diluted share.

“We cannot guarantee when we will return to profitability, but it is our intention to do so as soon as possible,” SHLD CFO Jason Hollar said in a pre-recorded conference made available on Thursday, in which he also acknowledged that the company had “fallen short” in its turnaround efforts. Adds Chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert, “While many observers have acknowledged the significant asset base of our company, we understand the concerns related to our operating performance and are committed to transforming our company through our 'Shop Your Way' membership program and our integrated retail investments.”

Lampert adds that SHLD is taking actions such as closing unprofitable stores, reducing space in stores the company continue to operate—including those that were spun off into the Seritage Growth Properties REIT—cutting back on underperforming categories and improving gross margin performance and managing expenses. SHLD is also continuing its exploration, first announced in late May, of options for its Kenmore, Craftsman and DieHard brands and its Sears Home Services business; the company may also explore options for its real estate portfolio.

Analysts took a dim view of the retailer's results for the three months that ended Oct. 29. “This quarter shows no sign of even the mildest of improvements: on the contrary, the trends have worsened with the weakest comparable performance so far this year,” Neil Saunders, chief executive of research firm Conlumino, told Reuters Thursday. “It is now too late to turn this around. The rot has well and truly set in and it is just not financially feasible to reverse it.”

Writing on TheStreet.com, Brian Sozzi opined, “Wall Street widely expected dying Sears to deliver another awful quarter on Thursday, but what was received bordered on terrifying for the one-time icon of the retail landscape.” In a separate posting, Sozzi noted that the retailer had just $174 million of availability left under its $1.971-billion credit facility at the end of Q3, compared to $963 million a year ago.