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Department store operator Nordstrom Inc. said Thursday that its profit rose 17 percent in its fiscal third quarter as affluent shoppers started spending again.
The company raised its 2009 profit outlook to a range of $1.83 to $1.88 per share from a previous estimate of $1.50 to $1.65 per share.
The Seattle company, which operates its namesake department stores and the Nordstrom Rack discount chain, earned $83 million, or 38 cents per share, in the quarter that ended Oct. 31. That is up from the $71 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.
The latest quarterly results fell a penny short of the consensus estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters forecasting profit of 39 cents per share.
Revenue rose 4 percent to $1.96 billion from $1.88 billion. Analysts had expected $1.78 billion.
Sales at stores open at least a year fell 1.2 percent for the quarter. That figure is considered a key measure of retailer performance because it compares a single list of stores and excludes those that open or close during the year.
For all of 2009, Nordstrom expects the figure to fall 6 percent or 7 percent.
Nordstrom shares fell $1.48, or 4 percent, to $33.03 in after-hours trading Thursday after closing at $34.51, down 35 cents from a day earlier.
