Big investments will boost profits

Article Excerpt

NORDSTROM INC. $58 (New York symbol JWN; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 185.4 million; Market cap: $10.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.nordstrom.com) is down 30% from its peak of $83 in March 2015. The company is seeing slowing sales, and it’s investing in new websites and stores in Canada. That’s squeezing its profit margins. In its fiscal 2016 third quarter, which ended October 31, 2015, sales rose 6.5%, to $3.2 billion from $3.0 billion a year earlier. Same-store sales rose 0.9%, well below the consensus forecast of a 3.6% gain. Earnings fell 21.9%, to $0.57 a share from $0.73. Nordstrom now expects same-store sales growth of 2.5% to 3.0% for all of fiscal 2016, down from its earlier forecast of 3.5% to 4.5%. It also cut its full-year earnings outlook to $3.35 a share from $3.75. The stock trades at 17.3 times the new estimate. That’s a reasonable multiple, as the company’s…