Kohl's (NYSE: KSS) has come out of the early months of the pandemic worse for wear, according to the company's quarterly report. Despite an earnings beat, the report left investors understandably shaky, driving shares down and casting doubt on the company's upcoming holiday season.
Kohl's Q2 was mixed, according to the company's quarterly report, but was overall better than experts had expected. Net sales were down 22.9% year over year, with in-store sales holding at three-quarters of 2019 levels. Total revenue was down 23%, and operating income was down 69%. Net income was down 80%, while non-GAAP adjusted net income was down 116%.
In contrast, Q1 sales were down 43.5% year over year, while the company's gross margin fell by 20%. Kohl's reported a loss of $495 million at Q1, as opposed to $39 million for Q2, a significant improvement.
According to Kohl's CEO Michelle Gass, the company isn't expecting recovery to get much better, at least for the time being. While the company saw an improvement in June, sales figures began to taper off into July as COVID-19 infections began to surge throughout the United States due to inadequate mitigation measures. Back-to-school sales were lackluster, though the company is expecting consumers to start their holiday shopping earlier this year, which may help Kohl's with its recovery in the long term.
Gass went on to say that the company is planning for the pandemic to continue to impact business and that the company is planning "conservatively" for the rest of the year. Experts, at least, seemed to be somewhat optimistic at Kohl's chances of success.
"We are modestly more optimistic about Kohl's. The location of its shops is more favorable and, already, foot traffic to uncovered shopping centers has come back faster than it has to traditional malls" said Neil Saunders of GlobalData Retail.
Kohl's stocks were profoundly affected by the release of the report. Kohl's lost 11% of its share price in pre-market trading on Tuesday and lost an additional 4% during daytime trading. Kohl's stock hasn't fared much better since losing an extra 5% by the end of trading on Thursday. Over the course of the two days since the report, Kohl's plummeted from $23.51 at market close on Monday to $19.00 at market close on Thursday.