Nordstrom Inc. late Thursday slashed its fiscal 2022 outlook as it offered shoppers more markdowns in the holiday season but still saw a drop in sales. Nordstrom’s
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net sales in the nine weeks ended Dec. 31 fell 3.5% as compared with the year-ago period, the retailer said. That includes a drop in net sales of 1.7% for its flagship Nordstrom stores and a 7.6% drop for Nordstrom Rack stores.
The stock fell more than 6% in the extended session Thursday, after ending the regular trading day down 0.7%. “The holiday season was highly promotional, and sales were softer than pre-pandemic levels,” Chief Executive Erik Nordstrom said. Nordstrom lowered its fiscal 2022 outlook on per-share earnings to between $1.33 a share and $1.53 a share, compared with a previous outlook of between $2.13 a share and $2.43 a share. The company called for adjusted EPS of between $1.50 a share and $1.70 a share, compared with a prior guidance of between $2.30 a share and $2.601 a share. Analysts polled by FactSet expect fiscal 2022 adjusted EPS of $2.35. “While we continue to see greater resilience in our higher-income cohorts, it is clear that consumers are being more selective with their spending given the broader macro environment,” Erik Nordstrom said. Nordstrom tried to right its inventories by taking addditional markdowns. It expects inventory levels to be down this year by an unspecified double-digit percentage as compared w …