Net Up, Sales Down at Kmart
Kmart Holding
(KMRT)
shares rose early Wednesday as the born-again retailer posted higher fourth-quarter profit, but continued to struggle with declining sales.
The retailer, which plans to acquire
Sears, Roebuck
(S) - Get Report
, had net income of $309 million, or $3.09 a share, compared with $270 million, or $2.78 a share, a year ago. Excluding gains on sales of assets and bankruptcy-related recoveries, the company earned $259 million, or $2.59 a share.
Same-store sales declined by 4.5% for the 13 weeks ended Jan. 26, a sharp improvement from the two previous quarters. Revenue slipped to $5.91 billion from $6.33 billion.
Based on the one analyst's forecast in Thomson First Call's survey, the company was expected to earn $2.80 a share on revenue of $5.67 billion.
"After a strong first two months of the fourth quarter, we continued to deliver solid financial results through the close of 2004," the company said.
Net income for the quarter included an after-tax charge of approximately $7 million, or 7 cents a share, for the early amortization of debt issuance costs.
Kmart's cash balance on Jan. 26 was approximately $3.4 billion, up from about $1.3 billion a year ago.
In premarket trading, shares were at 109.54, up 30 cents, or 0.3%. Shares hit a 52-week high of almost $120 in November of last year, when the stock quadrupled.