New stores, investments dampen earnings

Article Excerpt

NORDSTROM INC. $52 (New York symbol JWN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 173.5 million; Market cap: $9.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 2.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nordstrom.com) owns and operates 323 stores in the U.S. and Canada that mainly sell upscale clothing and footwear. Due to investments in its online business and the opening of new stores in Canada, Nordstrom’s earnings in its 2016 fiscal year, which ended January 30, 2016, fell 15.3%, to $3.15 a share from $3.72 in 2015. Sales rose 6.9%, to $14.4 billion from $13.5 billion, while same-store sales gained 2.7%. Online sales jumped 20.2%, and accounted for 19.6% of its total sales. Nordstrom is still a buy. buy. …