Retail Sales Miss in April as Cooler Weather Weighs

As today marks the first Thursday of the month, the U.S. retailers offered monthly sales figures this morning. Retail-focused market research firms Redbook and Retail Metrics said year-over-year sales for the month rose 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively.

Retail Metrics pointed out this was the smallest gain during April in the past two years and the first sales miss since November. The firm said cooler weather, early Easter, and late Mother's Day dampened monthly sales.

Retail Metrics said sales to specialty apparel companies rose a better than expected 4 percent, sales to the apparel sector were up 3.8 percent, discounters excluding Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) saw sales rise 2.7 percent, department store sales were up 0.5 percent, and sales to the teen category were flat.

Below are some company highlights for the month:

• Target (NYSE: TGT) same-store sales up 1.1 percent;
  
  
• Macy's (NYSE: M) comps up 1.2 percent;
  
  
• TJX (NYSE: TJX) comps up 6 percent, raised Q1 EPS from 51-52 cents to 54 cents, sees FY13 EPS $2.26-$2.36;
  
  
• Costco (Nasdaq: COST) comps up 5 percent;
  
  
• Gap (NYSE: GPS) comps down 2 percent, sees Q1 EPS of 44-46 cents, vs. cons. 40 cents;
  
  
• Limited (NYSE: LTD) comps up 6%, raised its Q1 EPS outlook from 35-40 cents to 38-40 cents, vs. the consensus of 41 cents;
  
  
• Aeropostale (NYSE: ARO) Q1 same-store sales up 6 percent, raised its Q1 EPS outlook from 8-10 cents to 12-13 cents, vs. cons. 10 cents;
  
  
• Walgreens (NYSE: WAG) comps down 6.4 percent;
  
  
• Hot Topic (Nasdaq: HOTT) comps up 7.5 percent, sees Q2 loss of 4-6 cents per share, vs. cons. 5 cents per share gain, and
  
  
• Zumiez (Nasdaq: ZUMZ) comps up 10.1 percent.

Visit our Retail Sales category on the first Thursday of every month to get all the latest same-store sales data!

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