Limited Brands Oct. same-store sales fall

Limited Brands posts 4 percent drop in October sales at stores open at least a year

• On 7:40 am EST, Thursday November 5, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Limited Brands Inc. said Thursday its October sales at stores open at least a year dropped 4 percent, falling short of Wall Street predictions.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a decrease of 2.7 percent. The retail metric is considered a key performance indicator because it measures growth from existing stores rather than newly opened ones.

Sales at the company's Victoria's Secret stores dropped 6 percent, while La Senza stores posted a 7 percent drop. Sales at Bath & Body Works stores open at least a year rose 2 percent.

Analysts, on average, expected drops of 4.8 percent at Victoria's Secret stores, 5.5 percent at La Senza stores, along with an increase of 1.7 percent at Bath & Body Works stores.

The company's total sales for the month fell to $561.1 million from $580.4 million in the same period last year.

For the first 10 months of the year, Limited's sales at stores open at least a year fell 7 percent, while total sales dropped to $5.57 billion from $6.05 billion.