Costco’s Profit Jumps 21%; Staples’ Soars 45%

Costco Cos., the nation’s largest operator of warehouse club stores, posted a 21% jump in fiscal second-quarter net income to $152 million, or 66 cents a share, exceeding forecasts of 64 cents, as the Issaquah, Wash.-based company benefited from sales growth worldwide and new merchandising initiatives such as its executive membership plan. Revenue including membership fees rose 14% to $6.59 billion, and sales at stores open at least a year grew 10%.

Separately, Staples Inc. said its earnings climbed 45% in the fiscal fourth quarter to $101 million, or 22 cents a share, excluding one-time items, as revenue jumped 23% to $2.08 billion. Analysts were expecting 20 cents a share. The office supplies retailer said sales at stores open at least a year grew 10%. Westboro, Mass.-based Staples also said it will begin to buy back as much as $200 million of its common stock. The year-earlier results are pro forma to include Staples’ acquisition in May of Quill Corp., a mail-order retailer.(Bloomberg News)

Sears Names New CFO: Sears, Roebuck & Co. ended its five-month search for a new chief financial officer, naming former Safeway Inc. executive Julian Day, in a move one analyst said could be setting up a line of succession to the chairman of the retailing giant. Day, 46, replaces Alan Lacy, who has been acting CFO since last August, when Gary Crittenden left to join life sciences company Monsanto Co. Lacy will remain president of Sears credit business.