Macy's Incorporation, the department store giant, released its fourth quarter results on Tuesday and posted a better than expected profit for the fourth quarter. The company managed to reverse its losses with the help of lower charges and lower expenses in the quarter.

Macy's Inc., which has four metro Memphis stores, posted a net income of $466 million or $1.10 per share, while in the same quarter last year the company posted a huge loss of $4.77 billion or $11.33 per share.

In the fourth quarter of previous fiscal, the company had to suffer from goodwill impairment charges of $5.38 billion. In the fourth quarter ended January 30, 2009, the Charges managed to reduce the charges related to properties held and used. These charges were reported $115 million this quarter while these charges were reported $161 million in the same quarter last year. The adjusted earnings were reported $1.40 per share for the quarter. The market analysts were expecting adjusted earnings of $1.32 per share for the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, total sales were reported $7.85 billion, decreasing by 1.1% while in the same quarter last year total sales were reported $7.93 billion. Sales figures in the quarter were reported above expectations of the analysts of $7.84 billion.

For the full year 2009, Macy's reported net income of $350 million or $0.83 per share, while in previous fiscal the company posted a net loss of $4.8 billion or $11.40 per share. Total sales for FY 2009 were reported $23.5 billion, decreasing by 6% while comparing to the FY 2008 total sales figure of $25 billion.