Kohl’s plunges after it posts gloomy earnings and swaps CEOs

The third quarter of the year is an important time for retailers, marking the last round of information investors get until after the holiday season, the industry’s Super Bowl. 

So it stands to reason that investors, after they saw Kohl’s massive earnings miss on Tuesday, sent the stock price down nearly 20% in early trading. The miss comes the morning after the company announced that its CEO, Tom Kingsbury, would be stepping down after less than two years in the role. Kingsbury was handpicked by a group of activist investors who, by the looks of it, have been unable to turn things around for Kohl’s. 

Unlike some of its peers, Kohl’s has not bounced back since the pandemic.

Kohl’s reported a profit of $22 million, down sharply from $59 million during the same period last year. Besides 2020, it was its worst third quarter since at least 1999, the farthest back FactSet data goes.

Before Covid, Kohl’s had not reported a third-quarter profit under $100 million since 2001. (Because the retail industry is highly seasonal, it’s helpful to compare a quarterly report with the one a year before rather than three months ago.)