Macy’s shares fell 5% after hours Wednesday after the department store announced 68 store closures, a restructuring resulting in the cutting of 6,200 employees in early 2017 and issued a profit warning. The majority of the 68 store closings are slated to take place in 2017 and are part of the planned 100 closings announced in August 2016. Because of the store closings, Macy’s said it expects 2017 sales to see a negative impact of $575 million. “We continue to experience declining traffic in our stores where the majority of our business is still transacted,” said Terry Lundgren, chief executive of Macy’s, adding that the online business is seeing strong sales. With Wednesday’s announcement, the company expects to see $250 million of charges to be recorded in the fourth quarter of 2016, which was not previously included in the guidance. The company is also looking to sell real estate and said it entered into an agreement to sell its downtown Minneapolis Store to 601W Companies. Shares of Macy’s have fallen 15.6% in the past month, compared to the S&P 500’s gain of 3.6%.
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