Category: Articles

So, Sears Holdings (SHLD) reported sub-par expectations on Tuesday and as I read the various reports and “analyst” comments, something jumped off the page. The first analyst compared Sears to retailers like Target (TGT), JC Penny (JCP), Kohls (KSS) and Macy’s(M). I read the comments and they all seemed legit. Same store sales are down at Sears in excess of the others. This must be bad. Then I read another report and that analyst commented that Sears was in trouble because it’s appliance and “big ticket” items were down like retailers Home Depot (HD) and Lowes (LOW).

All this got me to thinking, what is Sears and how should we set expectations for it? Is it a home improvement retailer like Home Depot, an electronics one like Best Buy (BBY) or a clothing retailer like JC Penny? The answer is neither and all of them.

Sears garners revenue and profits from both the big ticket washers and dryers, lawn and garden equipment, large screen tv’s and electronics and children’s shoes and family photos. Home Depot gets revenue from the former, Best Buy the middle and JC Penny the latter. None of them do all and because of that, we cannot judge and set our expectations for the retail performance of Sears according to our expectations for them, but look at all of them. We must expect the home appliance and electronics sections of Sears to continue to suffer as long as the sector’s major members do. This is not due to a failure of management or “Lampert’s store neglect” (today’s excuse being thrown around in the media) but simply due to “people not buying these items anywhere”.

Clothing. Even thought apparel is turning around at Sears (Land’s End will have a record smashing year and womens and children’s apparel are doing very well) one must sell a whole lot of clothing to make up for the lost sale of a $2000 washer & dryer or TV set. These are issues that JC Penny and Macy’s do not suffer from. It also means that when housing begins it’s turn around, that fact that Sears has turned the tide in clothing retailing will lead to spectacular results as folks begin buying those washers, dryers, refrigerators and TV’s again (they will).

What does this mean? Sears is not necessarily suffering from “bad management” , but “bad expectations”. The people setting the public expectations for Sears are comparing it to other retailers “in total” and not separating out the divisions. Just because Sears is a retailer does not means that because we expect “x” at JC Penny, we should expect the same at Sears. Sears is essentially in a retailing class by itself. It’s Kmart divisions competes with Walmart (WMT), it’s clothing with JC Penny and other clothing retailers, it’s home appliances and lawn equipment with Home Depot and it sells electronics against Best Buy. In order to set our expectations for Sears earnings, we must included expectations for all these areas as they all effect Sears. Currently, way to much comparison is being placed on the clothing retailers and not enough on the home improvement chains.

This is leading to over ambitious expectations for Sears and when they do not deliver, we have events like today. There are pithy headlines about Sears being a “broken retailer” but I have to wonder, did not Target, Home Depot and Best Buy just finish dialing back expectations for the near future? Are they “broken” or is it just a general slowdown for anyone who has significant exposure to those big ticket household items? I think it is the later. Just because Sears is not making excuses, do not be lulled into thinking they are immune from housing.

It is ok though, I will be in the market with Lampert today and we welcome the shares you want to sell.

So here is the financial nitty gritty. Sears Holdings (SHLD) said this morning it expected quarterly profit of $160 million to $200 million, or $1.06 to $1.32 a share, including special items.

Those special items would be an after-tax gain of about $12 million from bankruptcy-related settlements and total return swap investing activities, Sears expects to earn 98 cents to $1.24 per share. A gain on the total return swaps is good news.Last year in Q2, Sears earned $294 million, or $1.88 a share. Excluding special gains, it earned $272 million, or $1.74 per share.

Sears said it expected to end the second quarter with about $2.8 billion in cash and cash equivalents, excluding Sears Canada, down from $3.1 billion at the end of the first quarter.

In addition, Sears announced a new $1 billion share repurchase authorization in addition to the $121 million worth of shares still available for repurchase under an existing program. Sears said it had bought back about 13.8 million shares for $1.9 billion since the repurchase plan was approved in the third quarter of fiscal 2005. As of July 7, it had about 150.9 million common shares outstanding. On the last 10Q, Sears stated that the had 152,492,175 shares outstanding meaning Lampert has bought 1,592,170 shares since May 25. The new $1 billion program will take 7.1 million shares off the market or 4.7% of shares outstanding. A huge amount? No, but we know, based on past results this plan will be completed and share count reduced.

Should we panic? Sell? Hell no. Why? Sears is tied to the housing market far more than most other clothing retailers. It sells a huge amount of appliances, tools and yard equipment. It is a true mix of a Home Depot (HD) and a Macy’s (M) or JC Penny (JCP). That part of Sears is getting hit hard and it is not a management issue as both Home Depot and Lowes (LOW) are suffering the same fate now. Sears did say that women’s and children’s apparel both showed gains last quarter and the Land’s End division is having a record year. Neither of these are signs of a failing retailer. Rather, Sears is a retailer caught in the unavoidable train wreck that is the US housing market. When housing turns around, and yes it will, you will be left with a retailer that has made huge gains fixing it’s apparel offerings and now will be drawing more shoppers to those stores who are now spending money on their homes. They will also now have vastly different choices for apparel and based on current trends, will be buying them also.

Just as folks are claiming Home Depot and Lowes are undervalued, so to is Sears and for the same reasons. Today’s prices are a sale.

The reported numbers were from results for the nine weeks ended on July 7. The second quarter ends on August 4 and Sears said it did not plan to update its outlook before announcing second-quarter results on or about August 30.

Sears Holdings (SHLD) shares jumped over $5.68 Friday as rumors bounced around that Lampert may be getting ready to use some of the $4 billion plus he has sitting around in Sears coffers. Analysts said Macy’s (M) investors seemed to be positioning for a possible merger, reflected by a sharp rise in the department store’s options call volume as rumors of a deal percolated.

“There is some renewed takeover speculation in Macy’s heading into the weekend. Therefore, investors are buying shares and some options in case something happens,” said William Lefkowitz, options strategist at brokerage firm vFinance Investments in New York.

“The latest chatter today in dealing rooms is that super-investor Eddie Lampert may be looking to tie Macy’s and Sears Holdings together,” said Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers Group, in an e-mailed report.

Shares of Macy’s, that had been trading 15% below their YTD high have jumped on the rumors. Does the deal make sense? Hell yes. With a value of about 1/2 Sears Holdings, Macy’s would fit perfectly under the Sears umbrella. Not only that, the folks currently running things at Macy’s, who have have done a wonderful job the last 4 years with the Macy’s brand, could offer Lampert’s team assistance in revitalizing both Sears and Kmart. Macy’s has had problems with it’s May’s chain acquired in 2005 and I would be willing to bet if Lampert bought Macy’s, May’s would be gutted and sold to provide operating cash. How much? Consider Macy’s converted more than 400 former May’s locations to its namesake chain in September, about a year after buying the rival for $11 billion. The retailer owns more than half of its 858 Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s stores. The rest the company leases or owns on leased land. That would give Lampert a plethora of options the finance the deal and make it accredive to earnings almost immediately.

But, this is not the true “valueplay” Lampert has become known for and Macy’s is not currently selling at a bargain. Consider also that it only sits on only $500 million in cash and over $9 billion in debt. This alone would force Lampert to sell huge chunks of real estate to pay down existing debt and any debt added in the acquisition. Macy’s has repurchased over $3 billion in stock the last 28 weeks but has added $1.5 billion in debt doing so. Losing the dividend would save Lampert another $275 million a year and help reduce debt.

Should we root for this? Yes. If Lampert goes for it, he is seeing value in the assets and name far in excess of the current price. The plus of having Lampert buy it? He will have the ability to quickly extract that value for shareholders, of which, we must always remember, he will be the largest one.

If he doesn’t and this is all just another baseless rumor, oh well, the exercise was fun in an otherwise painfully monotonous news summer to date.

Did anyone hear anything about some new phone?