The bears on Sears Holdings (SHLD), and there are plenty of them, are again getting crushed today. This marks the second straight quarter that shares of SHLD have spiked after posting blowout earnings. As I have been telling everyone since the Sears/Kmart merger closed, Eddie Lampert's strategy for the company is working, despite negativity from retail analysts that still haven't a clue.
Sears Holdings stock is jumping $17 this morning, for a 12% gain. Their first quarter earnings were even better than wildly bullish investors like myself could have hoped for. Earnings came in at $1.14 per share, a stunning $0.50 above the consensus estimate of $0.64 per share. Here's the nail in the bears' coffin; same store sales for the period dropped 4.8%!
The bearish case, which has been laid out by retail analysts on CNBC and in newspapers and magazines nationwide for months, has been that without positive comp store sales and increases in market share, Sears would get eaten alive by Wal-Mart (WMT) and Target (TGT), and their stock would tank as a result.
As I've said before, and I'll say again, the company is not trying to increase same store sales, or overall sales. They care about one thing and one thing only, profits, because they know that over the long term profits are the only thing that matters if you want a stock price to go up. If today's blowout numbers don't back up this theory, I don't know what does.
Sears Holdings is one of Peridot Capital's largest holdings and will continue to be, despite today's $17 move higher.
*UPDATE* 1:59pm
With Sears stock now up $21 on the day, I realized I forgot to mention one thing in my original post. Check out the SHLD share repurchase plan. During Q1 2006 they bought back 3.3 million shares for $413 million. That comes out to $125.65 per share. The stock is at $159 right now. They know what they're doing, on so many levels. Okay, my cheerleading is over... for now anyway.