Bon-Ton 4Q profit falls, but results top view

For the period ended Feb. 2, the department store operator earned $74.4 million, or $3.71 per share. That's down from $78.2 million, or $4 per share, a year earlier.

The prior-year period included 93 cents per share related to a net gain on debt extinguishment.

Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected earnings of $3.54 per share.

Revenue improved to $1.02 billion from $983.2 million, meeting Wall Street's view.

Revenue at stores open at least a year, a key gauge of a retailer's health, climbed 1 percent. This figure excludes results from stores recently opened or closed.

Bon-Ton Stores Inc. said Tuesday that its full-year loss widened to $21.6 million, or $1.16 per share, from a loss of $12.1 million, or 67 cents per share, a year earlier. Annual revenue increased 1 percent to $2.92 billion from $2.88 billion.

Revenue at stores open at least a year edged up 0.5 percent.

The company said that it foresees fiscal 2013 earnings between 40 cents and $1 per share. Revenue at stores open at least a year is expected to rise 2 percent to 3.5 percent.

Analysts expect earnings of 68 cents per share.

Bon-Ton, which has corporate headquarters in York, Pa. and Milwaukee, runs 271 department stores, which includes 11 furniture galleries, in 24 states in the Northeast, Midwest and upper Great Plains.

Its shares finished at $11.91 on Monday. They have traded between $3.50 and $14.99 over the past year.