Macy's announced Monday that it is delaying its earnings release to investigate millions of dollars in expenses it says an employee purposely hid.
The company says that as it was preparing financial statements for the fiscal quarter that ended November 2, 2024, it identified an issue related to delivery expenses in one account.
An independent investigation and forensic analysis helped the company identify that a single employee responsible for small package delivery expense accounting intentionally made erroneous accounting accrual entries.
Macy's says the worker managed to hide approximately $132 to $154 million of cumulative delivery expenses from the fourth quarter of 2021 through the fiscal quarter ended November 2, 2024.
The company noted that it was a small part of its overall delivery expenses of approximately $4.36 billion.
Macy's says there is no indication that the erroneous accounting accrual entries had any impact on the company's cash management activities or vendor payments.
The company says the person responsible for the incident is no longer employed by the company and the investigation has not identified involvement by any other employee.
Macy's says it plans to report its full third quarter 2024 financial results and hold its earnings conference call by December 11, 2024.
"At Macy's, Inc., we promote a culture of ethical conduct," said Tony Spring, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy's, Inc. "While we work diligently to complete the investigation as soon as practicable and ensure this matter is handled appropriately, our colleagues across the company are focused on serving our customers and executing our strategy for a successful holiday season."
The company did announce on Monday that third-quarter sales fell 2.4% to $4.74 billion. Macy's net sales were down 3.1% for the quarter.
