Macy's beats earnings expectations in Q4

Macy's beat analyst expectations on earnings but missed on revenue in the fourth quarter, the company announced Tuesday.

Macy's earned $2.26 a share and net income of $793 million, down from $811 million, or $2.16 a share, in the same quarter of 2013. Adjusted earnings per share were $2.44, excluding $87 million in charges related to restructuring, store closings and other adjustments. Analysts expected earnings per share of $2.42, according to Zacks Investment Research.

Macy's shares are down 3.4% in afternoon trading.

Sales for the quarter ended Jan. 31 grew to $9.36 billion from $9.2 billion in the same quarter a year ago. That fell short of analysts' expectations for revenue of $9.4 billion. Sales at stores open at least a year increased 2.5%.

"Having now reached such a healthy profitability rate, we are shifting our resources and energies to growing the topline faster while maintaining this high profitability rate level," CEO Terry Lundgren said in a company statement. "As described in various announcements made over the past 45 days, we have now fully aligned our management team to fuel organic growth within our existing omnichannel business as customer shopping patterns evolve at both Macy's and Bloomingdale's."

Macy's announced several changes to its management and merchandising structure in the last month with an eye toward future growth. And earlier this month it said it would acquire cosmetics brand Bluemercury.

For the year, Macy's reported sales of $28.1 billion, up 0.6% from sales of $27.9 billion in 2013. Same-store sales increased 1.4%. But it fell short of estimates for the upcoming year. It expects earnings for fiscal 2015 between $4.70 and $4.80 a share. Analysts expect $4.83 a share, according to FactSet.

Contributing: Associated Press