Dillard's Q1 retail comparable sales drop by 4 percent

Dillard’s reported first quarter net income of 201.5 million dollars or 11.85 dollars per share compared to 251.1 million dollars or 13.68 dollars per share, for the prior year 13-week period.

Net sales for the quarter were 1.584 billion dollars compared to 1.612 billion dollars last year.

The company’s retail sales which excludes CDI decreased to 1.515 billion dollars. The decrease was 4 percent compared to the prior year first quarter. Sales in comparable stores also decreased 4 percent.

Commenting on the trading update, Dillard’s chief executive officer William T. Dillard, II stated in a release: “We had a good quarter against a tough comparison. We achieved a retail gross margin of 45.6 percent on a sales decrease of 4 percent as customer activity declined in the back half of the quarter. We repurchased 113.8 million dollars of stock and still had 955 million dollars in cash and short-term investments remaining.”

The company said, cosmetics was the strongest performing category followed by shoes and ladies’ apparel. Ladies’ accessories and lingerie and juniors’ and children’s apparel were the weakest categories.

The company operates 247 Dillard’s locations and 27 clearance centres spanning 29 states.