Sears Holdings (SHLD)

[millionairemind]

From what I have read, Eddie Lampert is probably one of the smartest value investor around. He has been trying to unlock the value in Sears with their inhouse brand of high quality Craftsmen tools etc...

Stock peaked at $180 now it is around $90. I remember when I was living in the US, Jim Cramer keep touting Sears cos' he believes in Eddie Lampert.

We probably need to give him a couple more years to see if he can perform his magic again.

Sears Holdings Profit Falls After Sales Decline (Update1)

By Lauren Coleman-Lochner

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Sears Holdings Corp., the biggest U.S. department-store company, reported second-quarter profit that fell more than analysts estimated after shoppers trimmed spending on appliances and clothing.

Profit excluding some costs will rise in the second half of the year, Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears said today in a statement.

Net income decreased 62 percent to $65 million, or 50 cents a share, from $173 million, or $1.15 a share, a year earlier, Sears said. Excluding a gain, Sears earned 21 cents, trailing some analysts' estimates by 15 cents.

Chairman Edward Lampert reorganized the company earlier this year as consumers contending with surging food and fuel costs cut back on all but basics and shopped at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The company has posted sales declines in stores open at least a year in every quarter since Lampert combined the Sears and Kmart chains in 2005.

``We haven't lost confidence in Lampert, and he's moving some of the pieces around and admitting where he's made mistakes and trying to fix them,'' Whitney Tilson, founder of New York hedge fund T2 Partners LLC, said before the results were released. ``I guess we're still believers, and a weak macro environment magnifies all your mistakes.'' Tilson said he's increased his holdings of Sears recently.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will rise in the second half of the year compared with a year earlier as inventory declines, interim Chief Executive Officer W. Bruce Johnson said in the statement. For the year, Ebitda ``is comparable to, but no longer exceeds, last year's Ebitda.''

Revenue Declines

Revenue fell to $11.8 billion from $12.3 billion, Sears said. Domestic same-store sales dropped 6.2 percent, including a 5.6 percent drop at Kmart stores and a 6.7 percent decline at Sears locations.

Second-quarter profit included a gain of 29 cents because of the overturning of jury verdict related to Sears, Roebuck & Co. bonds.

Six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated average profit of 36 cents a share. Four predicted sales of $11.7 billion.

Sears fell 64 cents to $86.98 yesterday in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. The shares declined 15 percent this year before today, compared with 24 percent drop by Macy's Inc. and a 12 percent retreat by the Standard & Poor's 500 Department Store Index.

Department stores have suffered as consumers cut back on clothing and home goods while contending with higher costs. Nordstrom Inc., Kohl's Corp. and J.C. Penney Co. each have reported profit declines in the first half of the year.

The cost of living rose 5.6 percent in the year through July, the biggest surge in 17 years, the Labor Department said on Aug. 14. The U.S. Energy Department said yesterday that gasoline prices may average $3.82 a gallon next year from a projected $3.65 this year.

Sales at stores open at least a year are considered a key gauge of retail performance because they exclude recently opened or closed locations,

[iam802]

Not surprising. All hopes were pinned on the Xmas sales.


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Sears Planning Massive Store Closings

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id ... v5pFyNVJLo

[iam802]

Even when I am in the States in a 'upmarket city', Sears is pretty much dead there.


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Sears Falls After Vendor Loans Are Said to Be Halted by CIT

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-0 ... y-cit.html

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Sears Holdings Corp. declined after two people familiar with the situation said suppliers will no longer be able to get loans or payment guarantees from CIT Group Inc. for their shipments to the retailer.

Sears fell 5.8 percent to $31 at 9:31 a.m. in New York. The shares dropped 56 percent last year.

CIT, the largest U.S. company that provides what’s known as factoring, told clients it would no longer approve credit for orders starting today, according to the people, who declined to be identified because the information isn’t public.

One risk when a factoring company pulls credit to suppliers is that others may follow suit. Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears has enough liquidity that it will weather the situation, said Matthew McGinley, managing director at International Strategy & Investment Group in New York.

“Even with Sears’s deteriorating financial condition, it is pretty unlikely that a vendor shouldn’t ship over the near term,” he said yesterday in a telephone interview.

Sears has lost ground as shoppers have flocked to such rivals as Macy’s Inc. Chairman Edward Lampert, who along with his hedge fund owns about 60 percent of the U.S. department store chain, has presided over four years of declining sales since merging Sears Roebuck with Kmart in 2005.

Goods factored by CIT represent less than 5 percent of the company’s inventory, Sears said.

Short-Term Credit

“We disagree with their action” and “point out that other factors are approving shipments to Sears,” Chris Brathwaite, a Sears spokesman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “It’s important to note, that Sears Holdings has more than adequate liquidity and ample resources at our disposal.”

Lampert bought 4.46 million shares from his ESL hedge fund at $29.20 per share, according to a regulatory filing yesterday.

Factoring companies such as New York-based CIT provide money on a short-term basis for manufacturers to produce goods for retailers. In return, they get a fee based on a percentage of the total order.

“We don’t comment on specific customers,” Curt Ritter, a spokesman for CIT, said yesterday in a telephone interview. The New York-based company is led by John Thain, formerly chairman and chief executive officer of Merrill Lynch & Co.

Clothing and home goods, items for which credit is often provided by factoring companies, account for about 28 percent of Sears’s sales, according to Gary Balter, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG. Lands’ End and other private-label goods sold by Sears aren’t factored.

Whirlpool, Electrolux

Sears has a $3.275 billion credit facility, in addition to other assets and credit in Canada, McGinley said. Larger and healthier vendors to Sears don’t need to use factors, he said.

Still, even the largest suppliers are affected by Sears. Appliance maker Whirlpool Corp., which received 8 percent of its 2010 revenue through Sears, fell 8.9 percent on Dec. 27 when the retailer said holiday sales declined and it would close as many as 120 stores.

Whirlpool’s only larger customer in 2010 was Lowe’s Cos., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Stockholm-based Electrolux AB got 5.8 percent of its revenue through Sears in 2010, making Sears the biggest customer for its appliances. Electrolux dropped 2.5 percent after the store closings were announced.

Default Protection

Contracts protecting against Sears’ default for five years increased 6.1 percentage points to 40.4 percent upfront as of 9 a.m. in New York, according to data provider CMA. That’s in addition to 5 percent a year, meaning it would cost $4.04 million initially and $500,000 annually to protect $10 million of Sears’ debt.

Credit-default swaps tied to Whirlpool’s debt, which typically rise as investor confidence deteriorates, jumped to the highest level since April 2009, adding 14.2 basis points to 340.8, according to CMA, which is owned by CME Group Inc. and compiles prices quoted by dealers in the privately negotiated market.

Credit-default swaps pay the buyer face value if a borrower fails to meet its obligations, less the value of the defaulted debt. The contracts, which investors use to hedge against losses on corporate debt or to speculate on creditworthiness, decline as investor confidence improves and rise as it deteriorates.

[winston]

Struggling retailer Sears Holdings slides to a new all-time low… shares fall 35%-plus in the past two months.

[behappyalways]

Is Sears toast? Retailer's stock hits all-time low
http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/08/investi ... index.html

[behappyalways]

sears-revival-promises-beware-the-zombie-apocalypse
https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articl ... apocalypse

[winston]

not vested

THE RETAIL BLOODBATH HAMMERS THIS DEPARTMENT STORE

Today's chart reveals more bad news for "offline" retail...

As regular readers know, the brick-and-mortar retail sector, saddled with debt, has been struggling as more consumers turn to online shopping.

Traditional retailers are regularly reporting sinking sales as their foot traffic declines. Today, we're seeing this in a longstanding department-store giant...

At one point, Sears (SHLD) was the largest retailer in the U.S. But the company has been forced to scale back in recent years, selling off its Lands' End line and its stake in Sears Canada.

This year alone, it shut down more than 350 Sears and Kmart locations... And earlier this month, its pre-announced third-quarter results brought more bad news. Same-store sales slid 15% from a year prior... And Sears said it would close 63 more locations in January.

As you can see in the chart below, Sears shares are skidding to record lows after the announcement. They're down nearly 70% in the past year. And with pressure from today's retail climate increasing, don't expect the pain to let up anytime soon...

Source: Daily Wealth

[winston]

Sears Stock Falls Another 9% and Is Down a Whopping 31% in Just Days

Analyst partly attributes latest drop to a big share sale by a former Sears board member's investment firm.

By Michelle Lodge

The pullback partly has to do with the selloff by major shareholder Fairholme Capital Management LLC, which recently sold some 8 million Sears shares.

Fairholme is run by Bruce Berkowitz, who was on the Sears board until October.

While the new U.S. corporate tax cuts give Sears' competitors 10% to 20% tax breaks, Sears doesn't benefit because it has no profits to tax. "

Some experts are predicting that Sears will file for bankruptcy this year.

Source: The Street

https://www.thestreet.com/story/1446392 ... mbles.html

[winston]

not vested

Jan 10. 2017

Sears saw its stock price jump 5.4% before the opening bell on Wednesday after the struggling department store announced that it raised $100 million in new financing.

On top of that, the company said that it is still looking for another $200 million in financing.

Sears’ CFO Rob Riecker noted that the new loan "demonstrates that we continue to have options to finance our business."

However, the company is still struggling to fight its way back after comparable-store sales fell roughly 16% during the first two months of the fourth quarter.

Shares of Sears currently hover up around 4.47% on the day.

Source: Zack's

[winston]

not vested

Why Sears Stock Continued to Tank Friday

by Daniel Sparks

The bulk of Sears stock's losses since last Thursday have followed the company's Jan. 23 press release stating it planned to exchange conventional bonds for convertible bonds, in a private debt exchange, that would help alleviate some near-term cash flow pressure at the cost of diluting shareholder stock.

Source: The Motley Fool

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-sear ... 00269.html