What happened
Shares of Sears Holding Corp (SHLDQ) were falling for the second day in a row as investors continued to react to the retailer's disappointing first-quarter earnings report, and the company identified 63 of the 100 stores it said it would close yesterday.
As of 11:01 a.m. EDT, the stock was down 11.8%.
Image source: Sears Holdings.
So what
After a 12% dive yesterday, Sears shares headed lower again as investors reacted to the latest round of bad news. Comparable sales fell 11.9% companywide, off sharply at both Sears and Kmart locations. Overall revenue was down nearly a third due to store closures, and its adjusted loss per share expanded from -$2.15 a year ago to -$3.93.
Sears also said it would close 100 stores, 72 of them in the next few months. Today, the company said it had identified the 48 Sears locations and 15 Kmarts it would begin closing in early September.
Now what
It's no surprise that Sears needs to do another round of store closings as the company is bleeding sales and losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The company has more asset sales planned, such as the Kenmore appliance brand, which will likely stave off bankruptcy for some time, but an actual turnaround at this point seems almost impossible.
