P. M. BRIEFING : High Payouts in Southland Fires Slash Sears Earnings by 41%

Sears, Roebuck and Co. today said that high payouts by its Allstate Insurance group due to the recent fires in Southern California will result in a drop of about 41% in second-quarter per-share earnings as measured against last year’s total net income.

Sears Chairman Edward A. Brennan also cited lagging earnings in the retail division.

Sears estimated earnings of 65 cents a share from continuing operations in this year’s second quarter. That would be down from 95 cents a share, or $391.2 million, of comparable earnings a year earlier. An estimate of total income in the quarter ended June 30 was not given.

The company’s total profit in 1989’s second quarter came to $1.11 a share, including operations that have since been discontinued. Sears had a second-quarter gain last year of $54.9 million from the sale of the commercial division of the Coldwell Banker Real Estate Group.