Macy’s Reports $0.19 Per-Share Loss in Third Quarter, Missing Lower Expectations
Key Facts
Macy’s said on November 13 that earnings per share for the third quarter of fiscal 2026 were a loss of $0.19, missing analysts’ estimate of a loss of $0.18 by $0.01 per share. Revenue for the quarter was $4.67 billion, matching the consensus estimate of $4.67 billion. The results combined revenue in line with market expectations with a per-share loss slightly greater than analysts had forecast. Investing.com cited Reuters as saying the figures were for the third quarter, with the report released November 13. The company’s previous guidance set a range for adjusted per-share loss, a different measure from the earnings per share reported here, so the two figures are not directly comparable.
Quarterly revenue came in at the matching lower and upper bounds of the company’s previous forecast and analysts’ consensus: $4.67 billion actual, against a consensus estimate of the same amount. Macy’s had forecast on September 10 that third-quarter net sales would range between $4.65 billion and $4.70 billion. That puts revenue within the range the company gave before reporting results. Previous guidance for adjusted earnings per share was a loss between $0.23 and $0.19. That range should not be equated with the actual per-share loss of $0.19, since the guidance refers to adjusted earnings while the reported figure was not specified here on the same basis.
The third-quarter results follow Macy’s second-quarter figures, reported on September 10, when net sales were $4.9 billion, up 1.1% year over year. Comparable sales rose 2.7% at the company, while comparable sales at its go-forward businesses increased 2.8%. Performance varied by brand in the second quarter: comparable sales rose 1.1% at Macy’s, compared with 11.3% at Bloomingdale’s and 6.2% at Bluemercury. These figures provide context on business performance before the current results quarter, but they relate to the second quarter and do not describe third-quarter sales. The comparison over time between the two quarters therefore remains separate from a direct comparison of third-quarter revenue with analysts’ estimates.
In the second quarter, diluted GAAP earnings per share were about $0.62, while adjusted diluted earnings per share were $0.63. The company said adjusted earnings rose 14% from a year earlier after excluding the effect of a net tariff recovery of $0.23 per share. Gross margin was 41.5%, up 180 basis points, but tariff recoveries lifted the margin by 180 basis points, according to the company. It added that ongoing tariffs and fuel costs reduced margin by 10 basis points. These metrics relate to the second quarter and do not, by themselves, explain the per-share loss reported for the third quarter.
For fiscal 2026, Macy’s raised its forecast on September 10 for net sales to a range of $21.675 billion to $21.825 billion, and for adjusted diluted earnings per share to a range of $2.15 to $2.35. The prior third-quarter guidance, for revenue of $4.65 billion to $4.70 billion and adjusted per-share loss of $0.23 to $0.19, sits within that annual outlook. The available facts do not include an update to the annual forecast after the third-quarter results were announced. Reliable data on the stock’s movement or the market’s reaction during the news session are also unavailable. Investing.com reported that the stock closed at $24.33, which does not establish a daily performance or a specific response to the results.
The report published on November 13 said earnings-per-share estimates had seen two positive revisions and 10 negative revisions over the preceding 90 days. That tally provides background on the direction of estimate revisions before the results, but does not by itself show how expectations moved after the announcement. The cited closing price of $24.33 appears in the same report and should not be treated as a measure of the stock’s change during the session without a reference price. The news therefore centers on a quarterly per-share loss one cent greater than estimated and revenue in line with consensus. The annual outlook raised by the company in September remains the latest range disclosed in the information available here.