Nordstrom (JWN, $58.99) Takes a $72 Million Charge on Customer Refunds, Misses Earnings Estimates; But Beats Sales Expectations

Nordstrom, Inc. admits that it erroneously overcharged some of its customers on their credit cards, and is refunding them. The news sent its shares down -11% in after-market trading on Thursday.

The luxury department store chain revealed on Thursday that it will refund $72 million to customers who were incorrectly charged higher interest rates on store credit cards that were delinquent. “We sincerely apologize to these cardholders. We realize customers and shareholders place a great deal of trust in us, and that’s a responsibility we take seriously,” Nordstrom said on a conference call with analysts.

Nordstrom’s compensation to customers subtracted 29 cents from its earnings per share for the latest reported quarter. During the 3 months ending November 3, Nordstrom’s earnings came in at $67 million ( 39 cents a share), plunging -42% from $114 million (67 cents a share) of the year-ago period. Analysts had expected Nordstrom to earn 66 cents a share. 

Revenue, however, increased +3% to $3.75 billion from a year ago, and beat estimate of $3.69 billion. The company registered a +2.3% growth in sales at stores open for at least a year, exceeding Wall Street expectations of a +2.2% increase.

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Sergey Savastiouk|Expert

Sergey Savastiouk, Ph.D. has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow University and has extensive experience as an entrepreneur, investor, manager, and mathematician. His professional expertise is in applied mathematics, mathematical modeling, system and pattern analysis, and software and hardware system integration. He has served as the CEO of several hi-tech start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, which has given him proven capabilities in business strategy for high-tech start-up companies, market assessment, company formation, team building, product development, marketing, and sales. He has published numerous articles in journals and magazines on related fields. As a retail investor, he spent 15 years developing his proprietary trading and quantitative algorithms (now Tickeron’s A.I.), which brought him significant returns in trading the stock market. His current work and goal in founding Tickeron is to bring professional, sophisticated stock market analysis capabilities to retail investors via an easy-to-use interface.