STORY: Macy’s shares fell nearly five percent Monday morning after it delayed the release of its third-quarter results due to deliberate accounting errors made by an employee.
The department store chain said an independent investigation found that a single employee “intentionally” made wrong accounting entries to hide up to $154 million in delivery expenses over the course of nearly three years.
It represented less than four percent of total delivery expenses during that time.
Macy’s said the employee is no longer with the company and there was no sign of the error affecting cash management activities or vendor payments.
Still, an analyst told Reuters it looks bad for the company, as it seems the retailer was caught off guard by this, but the amount is small.
The surprise announcement deprived the market of a key department-store bellwether’s outlook ahead of a potentially uncertain holiday season.
Macy’s did issue preliminary sales figures instead, which fell short of Wall Street expectations, and said it anticipates releasing its full third-quarter report by December 11th.
