Kohl’s posts sales and earnings decline

Kohl’s third quarter net sales decreased 8.8 percent to 3.5 billion dollars and comparable sales decreased 9.3 percent.

Gross margin was 39.1 percent, an increase of 20 basis points, operating income dropped to 98 million dollars and net income declined to 22 million dollars or 20 cents per diluted share.

The company said in a release that Kohl’s CEO Tom Kingsbury will step down effective January 15, 2025 but will stay on in an advisory role to the new CEO and retain his position on Kohl's board of directors through his retirement in May 2025. The board has appointed retail veteran Ashley Buchanan as CEO and board member, effective January 15, 2025.

Commenting on the trading update, Tom Kingsbury said: “Our third quarter results did not meet our expectations as sales remained soft in our apparel and footwear businesses.”

For the nine month period, the company’s net sales decreased 6.1 percent to 10.2 billion dollars, with comparable sales down 6.4 percent. Gross margin was 39.4 percent, an increase of 42 basis points, operating income decreased to 307 million dollars and net income to 61 million dollars or 55 cents per diluted share.

“We are not satisfied with our performance in 2024 and are taking aggressive action to reverse the sales declines. We are approaching our financial outlook for the year more conservatively given the third quarter underperformance and our expectation for a highly competitive holiday season,” Kingsbury added.

For the full year, the company currently expects net sales decrease of 7 percent to 8 percent, comparable sales decrease of 6 percent to 7 percent, operating margin in the range of 3 percent to 3.2 percent and diluted EPS in the range of 1.20 dollars to 1.50 dollars.

On November 13, 2024, Kohl’s board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of 50 cents per share.