Companies

Macy's concludes internal investigation and reports results

Dec 20, 2024 United States

The US-based company delayed the announcement of its third quarter results due to deliberate accounting errors. Macy's assured stakeholders of limited financial impact and declared stricter controls

“We have concluded our investigation and are strengthening our existing controls and implementing additional changes designed to prevent this from happening again and demonstrate our strong commitment to corporate governance. Our focus is on ensuring that ethical conduct and integrity are upheld across the entire organization”, commented Tony Spring, Macy’s Chief Executive Officer and Chairman.

Macy’s has concluded an internal investigation into accounting irregularities involving 151 million US dollars in delivery expenses hidden over nearly three years. A single employee responsible for small-package delivery expense accounting intentionally made erroneous accrual entries and falsified documentation to conceal an initial mistake.

Macy’s assured stakeholders that the issue did not materially affect its financial results and announced tightened accounting controls to prevent future incidents.

Third Quarter Results

The accounting discrepancies led to a delay in reporting Macy’s third quarter earnings. Following the investigation, Macy’s raised its full-year sales outlook but revised its earnings guidance slightly downward.

Net income for the third quarter fell to 28 million US dollars, compared to 41 million US dollars in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings per share, excluding the delivery-expense adjustment, was 0.04 US dollars, narrowly exceeding analysts' expectations of 0.03 US dollars.

Net sales declined by 2.4% to 4.7 billion US dollars, with comparable sales decreasing by 2.4% on an owned basis and by 1.3% on an owned-plus-licensed-plus-marketplace basis, year-over-year. Macy’s attributed the decline to underperformance in non-First 50 locations, its digital channel and cold weather product categories.

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