Nordstrom Growth Initiatives Boost Q2

For the quarter ended August 1, Nordstrom posted net earnings of $211 million, or $1.09 per diluted share, versus $183 million, or 95 cents per share, in the period a year ago. Net sales came in at $3.6 billion versus $3.3 billion in the 2014 quarter as comparable store sales gained 4.9%, the company maintained.

In the quarter, earnings included an increase before interest and taxes of $51 million, primarily representing the reclassification of receivables to "held for sale" associated with the sale of the company's credit card business. Even accounting for that one-time gain, Nordstrom beat an analyst average estimate published by Thomson Reuters by three cents per diluted share.

According to Nordstom, strategic growth investments, including the company's entry into Canada, the acquisition of Trunk Club and launch of Nordstromrack.com, drove over one-third of total second quarter sales growth.

In a conference call, as transcribed by SeekingAlpha, co-president Blake Nordstrom stated that the Rack operation has served "as an entry point to the Nordstrom brand providing opportunities for customers to cross-shop. For example, last year, we had one million Rack customers start to shop at our full-line stores or nordstrom.com for the first time. We are on track with our Rack growth with 16 openings planned in the third quarter for a total of 194 stores by the end of the year."

In the first half of the year, the company noted, it opened two full-line department stores and 11 Nordstrom Rack offprice stores.

Nordstrom operates 304 stores in 38 of the United States and Canada including 118 department stores and 178 Rack locations.