On a day when many retail stocks struggled, Nordstrom on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings and sales that beat analysts' expectations.
But shares of the stock tumbled after-hours, as investors digested the industry's health overall amid a slew of weaker-than-expected same-store sales results, implying lighter foot traffic in malls.
The department store chain reported earnings of 43 cents per share adjusted on revenue of $3.35 billion. Analysts were expecting the company to post profit of 27 cents a share on sales of $3.34 billion, according to Thomson Reuters consensus estimates.
Total same-store sales — a metric closely watched for retail stocks by Wall Street — fell 0.8 percent versus an estimate for a 0.1 percent drop, according to FactSet.
After ending regular trading with a decline of more than 7 percent, Nordstrom's stock was down 4 percent after-hours on the report.
The retailer said its net income rose to $63 million from $46 million a year earlier, boosted by stronger demand at its off-price stores, which are branded as Nordstrom Rack.
In the Nordstrom Rack brand, which consists of Nordstrom Rack stores and Nordstromrack.com/HauteLook, net sales increased 8.7 percent for the quarter, and comparable sales rose 2.3 percent.
Nordstrom said its online sales were 24 percent of total net sales for the quarter, driven by 11 percent growth at Nordstrom.com and 19 percent growth on Nordstromrack.com/HauteLook . This trend hints at how the department store chain has focused resources on drawing more shoppers to its e-commerce platform of late.
Retailers largely disappointed the Street on Thursday — Macy's, Kohl's and Dillard's all reported quarterly results before the bell that sent their stocks down across the board.
While many of its peers have been shuttering brick-and-mortar locations of late, Nordstrom's real estate portfolio is much leaner, leaving the business with more flexibility to tweak its store footprint more gradually amid an evolving retail landscape.
Investors aren't expecting any major store-closure strategy at Nordstrom anytime soon.
For fiscal 2017, Nordstrom reiterated Thursday that it expects net sales to increase roughly 3 to 4 percent, and for adjusted earnings per diluted share to fall within $2.75 to $3.00. The company says it expects comparable sales for the full year to be flat.
By the market close Thursday, shares of Nordstrom had fallen around 21 percent over the past six months, but are only down about 3.5 percent for the year-to-date period.