Sears losses swell but retailer beats Street

NEW YORK — Just days into the holiday shopping season, Sears announced that its third quarter losses widened to $548 million or $5.15 per share, compared to $534 million or $5.03 per share in the same period last year. But the struggling retailer beat Wall Street's expectations.

In premarket trading, Sears Holding Corp's share price reached 35.02, up 2.25% from Wednesday's close.

The company, which also owns Kmart stores, has been attempting to reinvent itself under chairman and CEO Eddie Lampert. Sears says it has closed or is about to close approximately 235 underperforming stores this year, most of which are Kmarts. Overall, Sears Holding has more than 1830 Sears and Kmart stores.

In a tough economic environment, the once venerable retailer has been facing fierce competition from Amazon.com, as well as more traditional brick and mortar rivals Home Depot and Wal-Mart Stores. Sears has been pushing a social shopping rewards program called Shop Your Way.

"We remain intently focused on delivering an unparalleled integrated retail experience for our customers through Shop Your Way and above all, returning Sears Holdings to profitability," Lampert said in a statement. "During the quarter, we unveiled or expanded several Integrated Retail customer initiatives, which helped drive online and multi-channel sales."

Sears' reported revenues of $7.2 billion, down from about $8.3 billion in the year ago period. The company also said online and multi-channel sales grew approximately 9% over the prior year third quarter, and approximately 18% over the prior year first nine months. Meanwhile, domestic Sears store sales decreased 0.7% for the quarter, as compared to a 4.0% decline in the third quarter of last year. Sears said that excluding the impact of consumer electronics, comparable store sales would have increased 1.0%.