(Bloomberg) — Macy’s Inc. trimmed its profit outlook after concluding its investigation into an employee that hid millions of dollars in expenses.
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The misstatement of delivery expenses will have a full-year impact of $79 million on gross margin and adjusted earnings per share, according to a statement on Wednesday. Most of the impact will be recorded in the fourth quarter.
As a result, Macy’s reduced its earnings outlook to $2.25 to $2.50 per share from a previous range from August that topped out at $2.90. It also lowered its projected gross margin rate.
Macy’s shares fell 2.3% at 2:30 p.m. in New York trading, paring an earlier decline of as much as 13%. Through Tuesday, the stock had fallen 17% this year.
Macy’s said the investigation concluded that there was “no material impact or restatements” to its previously filed financial statements. The company reiterated that the probe didn’t uncover evidence of missing cash or unpaid vendors and instead points to accounting errors by a former employee who hid approximately $151 million in delivery expenses from the fourth quarter of 2021 through the third quarter of this year.
The company published revised financial information for those fiscal years on Wednesday.
“We’ve concluded our investigation and are strengthening our existing controls and implementing additional changes designed to prevent this from happening again,” Chief Executive Officer Tony Spring said in the statement. He later told analysts on an earnings call that the ex-employee acted alone and didn’t hide the expenses for personal gain.
‘This Was Not Theft’
During the past several years, Macy’s has focused on reducing its delivery expenses and other costs to increase profitability.
Investigators were told by the employee that, initially, a mistake was made in accounting for delivery expenses, according to a person familiar with the investigation who asked not to be named disclosing information that hasn’t been made public. After that initial mistake, the employee intentionally made erroneous accounting entries to hide the mistake, the person added. The employee no longer works at Macy’s, the retailer has said.
“This was not theft,” Chief Financial Officer Adrian Mitchell told analysts on Wednesday. “There was no impact to revenues and there was no impact to cash or inventories as all vendors were fully paid.”
Macy’s said in a regulatory filing published on Wednesday that it found “material weakness” in its internal controls over manual entries of delivery costs and other expenses. In other words, the company’s internal guardrails failed to provide investors with accurate and reliable information about its financial performance.
The company added that the former employee also falsified underlying documentation.
It’s not uncommon for employees to manually override accounting entries in some circumstances, said Mike Walworth, CEO of GAAP Dynamics, an accounting education firm.
“However, it shouldn’t be just one person,” Walworth said. “You should have a couple of people or a committee” approving manual changes, Walworth added.
Corporate internal controls should be strong enough to flag falsified documents, said Gary Kleinrichert, managing director at forensic accounting firm Secretariat.
Macy’s declined to say whether colleagues reviewed the former employee’s entries, or if they were given the falsified documents.
The department-store operator said it has begun to implement changes to improve its internal controls including “re-evaluating the risk of employee circumvention of controls.”
Macy’s also said that an opinion published in March by its auditor, KPMG LLP, about the effectiveness of its internal financial reporting controls “should no longer be relied upon” because of the material weakness uncovered. A KPMG spokesperson declined to comment.
Macy’s declined to say whether its investigation has been referred to law enforcement or regulatory authorities.
Ryan Wolfe, chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement division, declined to comment when asked by reporters about Macy’s accounting errors on the sidelines of an accounting conference in Washington on Wednesday.
Raised Revenue Forecast
Macy’s raised its outlook for full year sales. It now sees net sales in a range of $22.3 billion to $22.5 billion, up from the prior view of $22.1 billion to $22.4 billion. Same-store sales at owned and licensed locations are expected to be flat to down 1% versus the previous year. The company previously expected that measure to decline as much as 2%.
“I see a consumer that — although remaining choiceful and looking for value — is interested in shopping,” Spring told analysts.
The department-store operator delayed the reporting of its full third-quarter earnings last month when it revealed the accounting problem and instead released preliminary numbers.
Macy’s is under pressure from Barington Capital Group and Thor Equities LLC, who are urging the company to form a separate real estate unit while cutting its capital expenditures. They’re also calling on Macy’s to consider spinning off its higher-end Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury chains.
Barington and Thor want seats on Macy’s board and would encourage the retailer to create an internal subsidiary for its real estate that would include all of the company’s owned and leased properties, including its stores and distribution centers. Macy’s would then pay rent to the subsidiary.
Barington owned 650,000 Macy’s shares, or a 0.2% stake, according to a Sept. 30 regulatory filing. That was an increase from the 100,000 Macy’s shares it owned as of June.
Macy’s has said it will maintain its current strategy, which focuses on improving results at the company’s most-profitable locations.
–With assistance from Nicola M. White and Amanda Iacone.
