After a period of contention with an activist investor, Kohl’s posted earnings gains that beat a Wall Street estimate even if the company fell short of revenues expectations, with macro issues hitting the top line.
Net income required no adjustments in the most recent quarter while the year-past quarter came in at $346 million, or $2.22 per diluted share adjusted.
Kohl’s beat a Yahoo Finance-published analyst consensus earnings per share estimate of $2.12 but fell short of a revenue estimate of $6.54 billion.
Total revenue was $6.5 billion versus $6.14 billion in the year-prior quarter. Operating income was $450 million versus $316 million in the year-earlier period, the company reported.
Net income for the full year was $938 million, or $6.32 per diluted share, versus a net loss of $163 million, or $1.06 per diluted share, in the year before.
Adjusted net income was $1.09 billion, or $7.33 per diluted share, versus an adjusted net loss of $186 million, or $1.21 per diluted share, in the year past.
Total revenue was $19.43 billion versus $15.96 billion in the year prior. Operating income was $1.68 billion versus an operating loss of $262 million, Kohl’s stated.
In a conference call, Kohl’s CEO Michelle Gass said the company had over the past year restructured the business to be more profitable while building operations including with the rollout of Sephora. She said the top line increased 6% but supply chain issues in the holidays hit sales by 400 basis points, after which the company suffered some traffic softness in a January affected by the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
Digital sales increased 21% versus 2019 and down 1% from 2020 in the quarter, she said. Digital sales penetration was 39% in the quarter.
In announcing the fourth-quarter results, Gass said, “In 2021, we delivered all-time record earnings per share, significantly ahead of our expectations. Our operating margin of 8.6% exceeded our 2023 goal two years ahead of plan, a direct result of our efforts to restructure the business to be more profitable. We remain extremely confident in the future growth and cash flow generation of our business, and in 2022 will build on our momentum as we further scale key initiatives such as Sephora. We continue to see a lot of value in our company. We are reinforcing our commitment to driving shareholder value by doubling our dividend and planning on repurchasing at least $1.0 billion in shares in 2022.”
