Kohl’s Q1 Earnings Up, Sales Down

The retail industry continues on its path of slow deterioration with Kohl’s latest earnings report.

In Q1 this year, Kohls’ shares dipped eight percent to $0.39 per share but still surpassed investors’ expectations. What caused the retailer’s shares to dip was its sales which saw its sixth consecutive quarter of declines in revenue. Kohl’s sales revenue decreased from $3.9 billion in 2016 to $3.84 billion in 2017 while its gross margin appeared to grow from 35.5 percent to 36.4 percent.

While this shows minimal growth for the retailer, Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell is confident in the company’s direction. He said in a statement to CNBC “Continued strong inventory management led to a major improvement in gross margin, and our teams managed expenses exceptionally well. We are encouraged by the significant improvement in sales and traffic for the March and April period, after a weak February start to the first quarter.”

After closing 19 stores in 2016, the retailer’s bottom line has certainly appeared to have been impacted during this first quarter earnings report.

What may turn out to be Kohl’s saving grace is its line of Under Armour products that have seen a decent start to the year. Bringing in additional highly sought after product lines could turn out to be the first step in how Kohl’s builds itself back up.