Retail Earnings Parade Begins: Macy's, Nordstrom in the Spotlight

As

season begins to wind down, it is time for the parade of quarterly reports from big retailers to begin. And kicking things off this week are department store operators

,

,

and

. Here we focus on the latter two retailers, and Wall Street analysts are looking for a shrinking bottom line from both of them. But Macy's topped the consensus earnings forecast in the past two quarters, while Nordstrom fell short of expectations. Below is a quick look at what analysts expect from these two reports, followed by a glance at some of the other most anticipated earnings results scheduled for this week.

When this Cincinnati-based retailer shares its fiscal first-quarter results Wednesday morning, the Estimze consensus forecast calls for a profit of $0.37 per share, a penny higher than Wall Street's estimate. Note that earnings were $0.56 per share in the year-ago period, and Macy's topped estimates by more than 10 percent in the previous quarter. Revenue for the three months that ended in April will be $5.93 billion, or down more than 4 percent year over year, if the 11 Estimize survey respondents are correct. Wall Street analysts are looking for $5.96 billion. Note that revenue also exceeded estimates back in the previous quarter.

Wall Street's forecast for this upscale fashion retailer sees earnings down 20 cents from the year-ago period to $0.46 per share, while 15 Estimize respondents are looking for a penny less. Both Wall Street and Estimize overestimated earnings numbers in the previous two periods, by as much as 16 cents. Revenue also fell short of consensus estimates in recent quarters, and now Estimize respondents are looking for $3.29 billion for the fiscal first quarter, the same as the Wall Street forecast. That would be more than 2 percent higher year over year. Look for Nordstrom's report after Thursday's closing bell.

As mentioned, retailers J.C. Penney and Kohl's are also to tap to share their latest results this week. Wall Street analysts are looking for a smaller net loss from J.C. Penney and shrinking earnings from Kohl's. However, at least a little revenue growth is expected from each of them. Other companies that Wall Street analysts expect to show at least some earnings growth when they report this week include Dean Foods, Electronic Arts, NVIDIA, Tyson Foods and Walt Disney. The consensus forecast calls for EPS at Hertz Global to be the same as in the year-ago period. On the other hand, EPS at Allergan, Nokia, Petrobras and Teva Pharmaceutical will be smaller than a year ago, according to the consensus forecasts. And net losses are in the cards for JD.com, Opko Health and SolarCity if expectations are accurate.

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