Retailers Post Mixed Results in Latest Period : Experts Cautious on How to Interpret Figures

J. C. Penney Co. said Tuesday that its third-quarter earnings declined 6.7%, while Dayton Hudson Corp. said its income rose 35% during the period and Carter Hawley Hale Stores Inc. reported a 5.6% earnings gain for its first quarter.

Penney said its third-quarter earnings declined to $160 million from $171 million a year earlier. Penney attributed some of the earnings decline to accounting changes.

The company said its revenue totaled $3.61 billion, down from $3.76 billion a year earlier.

The retail industry has been struggling through a slump that began in February, 1987. Some companies, like Penney, are still showing profit declines. Other companies have showed earnings gains, but securities analysts caution that the results, when compared to last year’s depressed numbers, may look stronger than they really are.

Dayton Hudson said it earned $45.6 million in the quarter ended Oct. 29, up from $33.6 million a year ago.

Third-quarter revenue increased to $2.87 billion from $2.54 billion for the 1987 period.

Accounting Changes

Kenneth A. Macke, chairman and chief executive of Dayton Hudson, said sales at its Mervyn’s department stores strengthened during the quarter because of improved inventory content.

Mervyn’s has been a trouble spot for Dayton Hudson in the past.

The company also owns Dayton’s and Hudson’s department stores and Target discount stores.

Los Angeles-based Carter Hawley Hale Stores reported an after-tax profit of $11.3 million in its latest quarter but said it had an operating loss of $4 million.

The company, parent of the Broadway, Emporium Capwell, Thalheimers and Weinstock’s department stores, said sales were $636.7 million in the quarter, up 4.3% from $610.6 million a year earlier.

The company reported earnings of $10.7 million in the first quarter of 1987. The $4-million operating loss in the quarter ended Oct. 29 contrasted with an operating profit of $625,000 a year earlier.

Philip M. Hawley, chairman and chief executive, said the sales gain came despite slow movement in women’s apparel, the industry’s mainstay.

Net profit was boosted by $15.3 million because of accounting changes to take advantage of the new tax law. In the first quarter of 1987, tax-related accounting changes raised net profit by $10.7 million.

For the first nine months of the year, Penney said it earned $372 million, compared to $328 million in the corresponding 1987 period. The 1987 results included a $140-million pretax charge for the relocation of Penney headquarters to Dallas from New York.