Saks reports wider 2Q loss, shares tumble

Luxury goods retailer Saks Inc. reported a wider-than-expected loss for the second quarter on Tuesday and delivered a downbeat forecast for the year as its affluent customers cut back on apparel amid a slowing economy.

Shares of the operator of the Saks Fifth Avenue chain tumbled more than 9 percent in morning trading, falling $1.05 to $10.17.

The New York-based retailer said it lost $31.7 million, or 23 cents per share, for the three-month period ended Aug. 2. That compares with a net loss of $24.6 million, or 17 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue fell 3.5 percent to $669.2 million from $694.1 million a year ago.

Thomson Reuters says that analysts it surveyed expected a smaller loss of 19 cents a share on higher revenue of $679.2 million.

Saks said it expects its 2008 operating margins, excluding certain items, to decline from 2007 levels. It also expects same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, to be anywhere from unchanged to down by low-single digit percentages for the second half of the year.

Same-store sales are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

"...we know we are continuing to face the headwinds of the economic and retail environment," Stephen I. Sadove, Saks' chairman and chief executive, said in a statment.

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