Macy's posts second-quarter growth, raises full-year guidance amid turnaround

Macy's on Thursday posted growth across the company in its second fiscal quarter and raised its guidance as it continues its turnaround.

The retailer said overall comparable sales rose 2.7% for the quarter, with comparable sales for its namesake brand up 1.1%. The company said that growth was largely driven by its so-called reimagined stores, locations it has revamped as one of the focuses of its turnaround.

Macy's said its higher-end store line Bloomingdale's saw an 11.3% increase in comparable sales, while beauty brand Bluemercury was up 6.2%.

"We're creating, I think, performance beyond just one quarter," CEO Tony Spring told CNBC. "This is now six quarters of better-than-expected top line and bottom line performance, five quarters of comparable sales growth, two quarters of net sales growth."

The company also raised its full-year guidance and now projects net sales to be between $21.68 billion and $21.83 billion, compared to a prior expectation of between $21.5 billion and $21.75 billion. It also raised its comparable sales outlook range from between 0.5% and 1.2% growth to a 1% to 1.5% increase.

Macy's hiked its full-year earnings per share outlook to a range of $2.15 to $2.35, up from $2 to $2.20. It said that included a roughly 5 cent per share bump from tariff repayments it will apply to its bottom line.

The retailer reported that it has received a total of $116 million in tariff refunds, and will invest most of that — about $96 million — in the customer experience and its turnaround plan.

Here's how the company performed in its second fiscal quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 40 cents adjusted; it was not immediately clear if that was comparable to the 37 cents expected

Revenue: $4.87 billion vs. $4.83 billion expected

The company reported net income of $169 million, or 62 cents per share, compared to $87 million, or 31 cents per share, the year prior. Adjusting for one-time items, Macy's reported earnings per share of 40 cents.

Sales rose to roughly $4.87 billion, up just slightly from $4.81 billion the year prior.

The company added that credit card revenue was up 2%, or $3 million, for the quarter, due to what it called a "healthy credit portfolio and stable net credit card losses."