date:Jul 11, 2013
es by 2.9% during the quarter. But a concurrent decline in discretionary categories caused gross margins to decline by 114 basis points to 34.68% of sales. Officials said they expected those conditions would continue in the fourth quarter.
Net earnings totaled $341.4 million, essentially flat from the same period a year ago, on $2.6 billion in sales. Both sales and earnings were slightly above analyst estimates.
John Heinbockel, an analyst at Guggenheim Securities, New York, estimated that con