Department store chain Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) met Wall Street’s revenue expectations in Q4 CY2025, but sales fell by 4.2% year on year to $5.17 billion. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.07 per share was 26.7% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Michael J. Bender, Kohl’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “We are ending 2025 in a stronger position than we started, with important work still ahead of us. Over the past year, our efforts have been focused on resetting our foundation. This focus is intended to stabilize the business and strengthen our operational ability to build for a stronger future. In 2025, we made meaningful progress, despite our Q4 topline coming in softer than our expectations. We were able to manage the business with discipline, deliver improved earnings, and generate meaningful cash flow, all of which helped us strengthen our balance sheet.”

Company Overview

Founded as a corner grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Kohl’s (NYSE: KSS) is a department store chain that sells clothing, cosmetics, electronics, and home goods.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but the best consistently grow over the long haul.

With $15.53 billion in revenue over the past 12 months, Kohl's is one of the larger companies in the consumer retail industry and benefits from a well-known brand that influences purchasing decisions. However, its scale is a double-edged sword because it’s harder to find incremental growth when you’ve penetrated most of the market. For Kohl's to boost its sales, it likely needs to adjust its prices or lean into foreign markets.

As you can see below, Kohl's struggled to generate demand over the last three years. Its sales dropped by 5% annually as it didn’t open many new stores and observed lower sales at existing, established locations.

This quarter, Kohl's reported a rather uninspiring 4.2% year-on-year revenue decline to $5.17 billion of revenue, in line with Wall Street’s estimates.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to decline by 1.2% over the next 12 months. it’s hard to get excited about a company that is struggling with demand.

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Store Performance

Number of Stores

A retailer’s store count often determines how much revenue it can generate.

Kohl's has kept its store count flat over the last two years while other consumer retail businesses have opted for growth.

When a retailer keeps its store footprint steady, it usually means demand is stable and it’s focusing on operational efficiency to increase profitability.

Note that Kohl's reports its store count intermittently, so some data points are missing in the chart below.

Same-Store Sales

The change in a company's store base only tells one side of the story. The other is the performance of its existing locations and e-commerce sales, which informs management teams whether they should expand or downsize their physical footprints. Same-store sales provides a deeper understanding of this issue because it measures organic growth at brick-and-mortar shops for at least a year.

Kohl’s demand has been shrinking over the last two years as its same-store sales have averaged 4.7% annual declines. This performance isn’t ideal, and we’d be concerned if Kohl's starts opening new stores to artificially boost revenue growth.

In the latest quarter, Kohl’s same-store sales fell by 2.8% year on year. This decrease represents a further deceleration from its historical levels. We hope the business can get back on track.

Key Takeaways from Kohl’s Q4 Results

Same store sales declined and was below expectations, which is a bad sign for a retailer. Looking ahead, the company expects a same-store sales decline for the upcoming fiscal year, in line with expectation. Full-year EPS guidance was also in line with expectations. Overall, this print didn't have any positive surprises. Investors were likely hoping for more, and shares traded down 10.1% to $13.30 immediately following the results.

Big picture, is Kohl's a buy here and now? What happened in the latest quarter matters, but not as much as longer-term business quality and valuation, when deciding whether to invest in this stock. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).