DSW 2Q Profit Beats Street View

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Shoe retailer DSW Inc. said Wednesday its second-quarter profit fell 31 percent but it still beat Wall Street's consensus prediction. It also raised its 2009 profit estimate.

DSW said its expects a yearly profit of 37 cents per share to 45 cents per share, up from an estimate of 30 cents per share to 35 cents per share, issued in May.

For the quarter ended Aug. 1, DSW said it earned $7.6 million, or 17 cents per share, down from $11 million, or 25 cents per share, last year. But it still performed well enough to top a profit estimate of 11 cents per share from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 3 percent to $369.5 million from $357.2 million, and its same-store sales decline slowed to 2.9 percent, an improvement over the 6.9 percent drop it saw a year earlier. The sales fell 4.7 percent in the first quarter. Sales at stores open at least a year are an important retail performance indicator because they measure sales at existing locations rather than newly opened ones.

For the year ending Jan. 30, DSW reiterated its estimate of a mid-single digit decrease in same-store sales.

DSW shares jumped $1.83, or 13.1 percent, to $15.85 in premarket trading.