Dillard's Inc. on Thursday reported a fiscal second-quarter profit of $72.8 million, or $4.66 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $3.79 per share.

The department store operator posted revenue of $1.51 billion in the period, matching Street forecasts and up slightly from sales of $1.49 billion a year ago.

"We were happy to achieve a sales increase for the first time in a while and encouraged by strengthening sales trends in July," said Dillard's Chief Executive Officer William T. Dillard, II. "In an operating environment that changes daily, we focused on controlling inventory, ending up 2% compared to 6% at the end of first quarter."

Dillard's shares rose more than 5% in af

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