Macy’s Inc.’s stock M slid 9% in premarket trade Thursday, after the department store chain posted weaker-than-expected fiscal first-quarter sales and cut its full-year guidance to reflect a challenged consumer. The New York-based company posted net income of $155 million, or 56 cents a share, for the quarter to April 29, down from $286 million, or 98 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Adjusted per-share earnings were also 56 cents, ahead of the 45 cent FactSet consensus. Sales fell to $4.982 billion from $5.348 billion, below the $5.014 billion FactSet consensus. Same-store sales fell 7.2%, while FactSet expected a decline of 5.5%. “We planned the year assuming that the economic health of the consumer would be challenged, but starting in late March, demand trends weakened further in our discretionary categories,” CEO Jeff Gennette said in a statement. The company has moved to meet weakened demand and manage costs and expects $200 million of incremental cost savings to be realized in fiscal 2023. It also lowered its guidance to reflect “anticipated macroeconomic impacts to the consumer.” Macy’s is now expecting full-year sales to range from $22.8 billion to $23.2 billion, down from prior guidance of $23.7 billion to $24.2 billion. It expects adjusted EPS to range from $2.70 to $3.20, down from prior guidance of $3.67 to $4.11. Same-store sales are expected to fall 7.5% to 6%, compared with prior guidance of down 4% to 2%. The stock has fallen 34% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 9%.
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