Warehouse Group lowered its forecasts for annual profit and dividends after New Zealand's largest listed retailer posted weaker first-half earnings as its Red Sheds and Noel Leeming units missed expectations.
Full-year adjusted net profit, which excludes one-time items and is the basis for dividend payments, will be between $52 million and $56 million, down from $60.7 million a year earlier, it said in a statement.
The company lowered its full-year dividend forecast to 16 cents per share, down from its previous forecast of 19 cents, which it paid last year.
Warehouse shares are rated an average 'sell' and have shed 19 per cent of their value over the past year as analysts and investors say they want the company to start producing profit growth after the retailer spent hundreds of millions of dollars overhauling stores and buying new businesses the past few years.
The retailer today posted a 19 per cent drop in adjusted first-half profit to $37.2 million, in line with its forecast.