What: Bloomingdale's delivered 11.3% comparable-sales growth in Macy's Inc.'s second quarter of fiscal 2026, the strongest performance of any of the group's banners, as Macy's raised its full-year sales and earnings targets.

Why it is important: The result extends Bloomingdale's now well-established run of consecutive comparable-sales growth, showing its outperformance is structural rather than a one-off, and giving other department stores a benchmark for what sustained luxury-format demand looks like.

Macy's Inc. raised its annual sales and profit forecasts on Thursday after stronger performance at its upmarket Bloomingdale's and Bluemercury chains, as higher-income shoppers kept spending despite an uncertain economic backdrop. Shares rose about 5 percent in premarket trading following the announcement.

Under CEO Tony Spring, the department-store operator has pursued a turnaround focused on its higher-end businesses, which continue to benefit from demand for luxury apparel, handbags, fragrances, cosmetics and skincare, while growth at the value-oriented namesake stores lags. Spring's "Bold New Chapter" strategy, launched in 2024, has prioritised higher-margin, full-price sales, closed underperforming stores and redirected resources toward stronger markets.

Macy's now expects fiscal 2026 net sales between $21.68 billion and $21.83 billion, up from a prior forecast of $21.50 billion to $21.75 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.15 to $2.35, up from $2.00 to $2.20. The company said the outlook reflects macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty as well as tariff refund benefits. Second-quarter sales rose 1.1 percent to $4.87 billion, above analysts' $4.83 billion estimate. Comparable sales rose 11.3 percent at Bloomingdale's and 6.2 percent at Bluemercury, versus 1.1 percent at Macy's namesake stores.

IADS Notes: Bloomingdale's 11.3% comparable-sales growth in the second quarter of fiscal 2026 extends a run of outperformance that has held for well over a year: the division posted a 9.9% comparable-sales increase in the fourth quarter of 2025 (WWD, March 2026), a 10.2% increase in the first quarter of 2026 that WWD attributed partly to Bloomingdale's ability to draw brands and customers away from the bankrupt Saks Global (WWD, June 2026), and an 8.8–9.0% increase the quarter before that, its highest in thirteen quarters (press release, December 2025). That earlier momentum was explicit in Macy's own first-quarter reporting, where Bloomingdale's comparable-sales strength was named as a lead driver of the group's decision to raise its full-year guidance (press release, June 2026) — the same mechanism now repeating with these second-quarter results. The trajectory also traces back to a strategic call made well before the "Bold New Chapter" turnaround took hold: incoming CEO Tony Spring, then fresh from a decade leading Bloomingdale's, told CNBC the banner would be the group's next growth vehicle (CNBC, October 2023), a thesis the subsequent run of consecutive comparable-sales gains has now borne out.

Bloomingdale's drove 11.3% comparable-sales growth in 2026 Q2.