SEARS MOVES CLOSER TO BANKRUPTCY AS WALL STREET CHEERS $628 MILLION LOSS

Even as the worst run retailer in America inches ever closer to bankruptcy the Wall Street shysters and the captured MSM continue to tout this piece of shit retailer as a good investment. I looked at their income statement and balance sheet. Here are the lowlights:

• Revenue plunged by 13% ($1.1 billion) as the company dismantles itself, selling off the only decent businesses like Lands End.
• Gross margin declined by 1.1% as they keep cutting prices to move their Chinese produced crap.
• They only lost $628 million versus ONLY $547 million last year in one quarter. Year to date, this fine retailer has lost $1.65 billion after nine months. They are guaranteed to lose more than $1 billion in the 4th quarter, as they spiral towards bankruptcy.
• Their balance sheet is a disaster. They have burned through $700 million of cash in 9 months and only have $300 million left.
• They have $2.1 BILLION of debt due within 12 months.
• They have slashed their inventory by 28% since last year. That bodes well for 4th quarter sales.
• They now have $4.9 BILLION of debt and $126 MILLION of equity. Sounds like a great investment.
• They still owe their retired workers $1.3 BILLION in pension and healthcare benefits.

This company is a pathetic joke and the Wall Street shysters and their propaganda peddler cohorts in the MSM have the balls to put out a press release saying they beat expectations, so all is well. This company is experiencing a death rattle. It’s over. The fat lady is singing. They are dead retailer walking. The bankruptcy filing is already being worked on by that genius Eddie Lampert.

Sears loss widens, but tops Wall Street views

By Chelsey Dulaney

Published: Dec 4, 2014 6:46 a.m. ET

Sears Holdings Corp.’s loss widened in its October quarter on a 13% drop in revenue, as the one-time fixture of the U.S. retail landscape continues to dismantle itself in an attempt to shore up its finances.

The results, however, came in above Wall Street’s expectations.

In recent years, Eddie Lampert, Sears’s chairman and chief executive, has sought to refocus the retailers operations, spinning off business lines like Lands’ End and assets like a big stake in Sears Canada to the company’s shareholders. Sears has recently turned to a spate of financing moves that leaned heavily on Mr. Lampert’s hedge fund in an effort to raise much-needed cash.

The efforts came as Sears worked to reassure vendors that have been rattled by its financial performance ahead of the holiday season, when retailers typically spend heavily securing inventory for the key selling season. Euler Hermès Group SA, which insures suppliers against nonpayment from retailers, told policyholders that it would cancel coverage on Sears, and vendor finance providers have tightened terms, vendors have said.

Sears said Thursday that it has raised $2.2 billion this year, in part from a loan from Mr. Lampert’s hedge fund and the sale of some of the company’s stake in Sears Canada. In November, Sears said it was also weighing whether to spin off up to 300 of its 712 company-owned stores into a separate entity in which Sears shareholders would be entitled to buy stakes.

As of Nov. 1, Sears had cash balances of $326 million, down from $384 million in domestic-only cash balances a year earlier. Sears said its domestic inventory was down $1.1 billion as of Nov. 1 from a year earlier, excluding the Lands’ End business, driven in part by improved productivity and store closures.

For the quarter ended Nov. 1, Sears posted a loss of $548 million, or $5.15 a share, compared with a loss of $534 million, or $5.03 a share a year earlier. Excluding costs of closing stores, certain tax matters and other items, the company’s adjusted per-share loss was $2.71.

Revenue fell 12.9% to $7.21 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had recently expected a loss of $3.31 a share on revenue of $6.88 billion. Sears had said last month that its top and bottom lines in the quarter were little changed from a year ago.

Gross margin slipped to 22.2% from 23.3% a year earlier, while total expenses fell 12%.

Overall, same-store sales fell 0.1% at domestic stores during the quarter. Sears said its Sears full-line domestic same-store sales fell 0.7%, but noted they would have grown 1% excluding the impact of consumer electronics. The company’s Kmart stores posted a 0.5% uptick in same-store sales, led by strength in apparel and outdoor living items.