Nordstrom boosts earnings outlook as retail peers battle slowing growth

Yahoo Finance Live anchors discuss first-quarter earnings for Nordstrom.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: From Dick's, I want to talk about Nordstrom a little bit because this is an interesting one as well, because here, you see much better performance. The shares are only up about a half a percent, but the company said its sales were up 19% last quarter. And this company is actually raising its forecast. So, a very different story here. The company says now its revenue will rise 6% to 8% this year, and its earnings per share will be $3.38 to $3.68. So, very different picture.

JARED BLIKRE: It is. And if you want to know why, perhaps, it's because Nordstrom has been doing very poorly historically, and they're kind of in a turnaround right now. So this is coinciding with a reorientation of their business structure. Now, I'm looking at the YFi Interactive, and we have a chart here over the last five years of Nordstrom. And you take a look. This is definitely a trending down stock right now. Sorry about my bad squiggle lines here, but. And you take a look over the last 10 years, kind of a similar story. So it really hasn't jumped much off of the lows down here. And they're trying to rebuild.

I do have some analyst commentary here. Vital Knowledge saying that Nordstrom results, quote, "aren't mind blowing, but this is a home run following earnings from peers." And they're also saying that they're benefiting from exposure to different demographics, with signs pointing to the high end of the market holding up very well.

Another thing I'm noticing is the retailers are really getting into the experience of shopping again, and that's because people, having been locked down for two years-- and this was a trend that was in place before the pandemic-- really wanted to get out and experience things. This is more of a millennial and Z-- Gen Z thing. But I also read today that COS, that store is expanding its Sephora offerings. And so, they're really trying to build things into the retail effect sector to get people in there.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, we'll see if it works.

JARED BLIKRE: Looks like we've got the opening bell right now.

JULIE HYMAN: Yeah.

[BELL]

And apparently, Major League Pickleball is ringing the bell there. And one of our producers was saying, what is pickleball? It's a very hot new trend. It's sort of like--

JARED BLIKRE: I'm googling this.

JULIE HYMAN: It's a tennis-ish, paddle ball-ish, kind of, game, but it has exploded in popularity over the past couple of years. And a lot of tennis courts have been converted to pickleball courts, which I believe is a shorter, smaller court. I personally have not played pickleball. There are traveling pickleball courts as well. It's a big thing. Believe you me.

JARED BLIKRE: Here's what I think is good. The ball-- OK, so it has a little wiffle ball. That looks safe and easy. And I can see-- I'm not good at tennis. My eyesight doesn't track the balls that well. So this looks doable in some way. I also got a producer on my ear saying this is very popular in Florida.

JULIE HYMAN: Yes, it is very popular in Florida. That is-- I can confirm, considering I have some relatives in Florida.

JARED BLIKRE: Now I know what pickleball is.

JULIE HYMAN: Now we all know what pickleball is. I want to get back to one minor point about Nordstrom that's affecting another stock here. And it has to do with Allbirds, because Nordstrom says it has a new partnership with Allbirds. It's going to start being a sales channel for Allbirds starting on June 1. So we had seen those Allbirds shares rise, and they're continuing to rise. Of course, they have been quite beaten up lately, so this rebound is coming off of, oof, a pretty dismal quarter.

JARED BLIKRE: I'm not sure if those are very popular in Florida, though. I hear they're very warm, having been made of wool.

JULIE HYMAN: Oh, because they're made of wool. They're not all made of wool anymore, though, so maybe they'll catch on in Florida.

JARED BLIKRE: Something for everybody.

JULIE HYMAN: We'll see.

JARED BLIKRE: Even Floridians.

JULIE HYMAN: Even Floridians, like yourself, by the way--

JARED BLIKRE: Exactly.

JULIE HYMAN: --a native Floridian.