Sears 4th-quarter loss narrows but sales fall sharply as it sheds assets

Sears is posting its fourth straight year of falling profit and revenue, though cost cutting narrowed those declines in the fourth-quarter.

Sears lost $159 million, or $1.50 per share. A year earlier it lost $358 million, or $3.37 per share.

It cut costs and expenses from $10.73 billion to $8.23 billion.

Revenue declined to $8.1 billion from $10.59 billion after the sale of most of stake in its Canadian unit, the spinoff of Lands' End and fewer Kmart and Sears stores.

For the year, Sears' loss widened to $1.68 billion, or $15.82 per share, from a loss of $1.37 billion, or $12.87 per share, in the prior year. Revenue fell to $31.2 billion from $36.19 billion.