Kohl’s soars after major Q2 earnings beat, better-than-expected full-year guidance

Kohl’s shares surged 20% in premarket trading after the retailer posted blowout second-quarter earnings.

Adjusted diluted earnings per share landed at $0.56, nearly double Wall Street’s $0.30 estimate, according to FactSet. Revenue came in at $3.3 billion, essentially in line with expectations. Same-store sales fell 4.2%, much better than the 5.2% decline analysts projected.

Looking ahead, Kohl’s tightened and improved its full-year forecast. The company now expects net sales to fall 5% to 6%, compared with its prior outlook for a 5% to 7% drop. Adjusted diluted EPS are now projected to be between $0.50 and $0.80, up from earlier guidance of $0.10 to $0.60. This bottom-line guidance may not be directly comparable with Kohl’s previous outlook, but in any event it’s still far better than the full-year adjusted diluted EPS consensus estimate of $0.49, per analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Prior to the earnings pop, the stock was down about 7% year to date.