01 March 2013/18 Raby’ ath-Thani 1434/11 Esfand 1391

Best Buy reported a measly 0.9% increase in 4th Quarter sales in the United States. Best Buy calls it the end of their Fiscal Year 2013, I guess they’re living in the future. There is no standardized Fiscal Year (FY), so it can get confusing for us regular folks.

Even with a measly increase in sales, overall domestic revenue fell by 0.3%, and company officials admit that it’s because they shut down 49 stores!

Best Buy saw their international sales drop by 6.6%, yet managed to see a 2% increase in international revenue!  Officials credit Europeans for that.  The big drop in sales took place in Canada and China.

Best Buy says their domestic profits were unchanged from the year before, and international profits fell 2% from their FY 2012.  Company officials warned to expect a rough 1st Quarter (for their FY 2014).

Kohl’s department store reporting disappointing results. For the 4th Quarter profits fell 17% (but in dollar terms they still made hundreds of millions).   Company officials say sales were up for the year, but their discounted pricing and clearance sales cut into expected profits.  Like Best Buy, Kohl’s is cautious about sales for Gregorian calendar year 2013.

The 5th largest cable TV provider, Cablevision, reported higher 4th Quarter results, but that was because they won a lawsuit, not because of sales.  When you throw out the gains from the lawsuit, Cablevision had a net loss of $83 million USD.

Cablevision officials blame their down sales/revenue on hurricane Sandy. They say they lost 11000 customers because of power outages (this is on top of the 28000 customers they lost for other reasons).

Publix, “…the largest and fastest-growing employee-owned supermarket chain in the United States.”,  reported an overall 1.9% increase in sales for 2012.  It would have been higher if it weren’t for the fact that their FY 2012 had one more week than FY 2011.  Publix is a privately owned company so unless you work for them don’t expect to buy any of their stocks.

Home improvement store, Lowe’s, reported their end of year results: “Lowe’s fiscal year ends on the Friday nearest the end of January; therefore, fourth quarter and fiscal year 2011 included an extra week compared to 2012.” (like I said, it gets a little confusing for us regular folks)

Lowe’s saw an end of year drop in overall sales of 5%.  But they had a measly 0.6% increase in sales for the year, and they credit hurricane Sandy for that!

But wait, it gets confusing: Lowe’s says comparable, consolidated, same store sales were up for the 4th Quarter, by 1.9%, and up by 1.4% for the year.  Then they add that comparable, consolidated, same store sales for “the U.S. business” were up 1.5%.  Lowe’s bosses are happy: “We delivered solid results in the fourth quarter…”-Robert A. Niblock, chairman, president and CEO

Hello Lowe’s, your overall 4th Quarter sales still fell by 5%: “….decreased 5.0 percent to $11.0 billion from $11.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.”

Lowe’s managed to buy back $4.35 billion of their own stocks, and pay stockholders $704 million in 2012!

Target, second to Walmart, reported an increase in end of year holiday sales, by 6.8%!  For the whole year Target experienced a 2.7% increase in sales from 2011. Company officials credit this to an extra week in their FY (isn’t that interesting, while some companies blame the extra week for weaker results, Target gives it credit for stronger results), and the opening (not closing) of new stores!

Target paid its stockholders dividends, and is invading Canada this year!

Sturm, Ruger & Company, the maker of the famous Mini-14 and 10/22 rifles, reported huge increases in 2012; 50% increase in sales and 77% increase in revenue! Company officials credit this to new gun models (not to the anti-gun efforts in Washington DC).

In March 2013, the company will pay stockholders a dividend close to 40% of the company’s income.  For 2012, Ruger paid stockholders $111.5 million!