BUSINESS DIGEST ||

Kmart WARN notice

HOWLAND

In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notice, Kmart Corp. wrote the entire store at 2100 Niles-Cortland Road SE will close and about 133 employees will be laid off in early April.

Sears Holdings, Kmart’s parent company, announced in early January the closure of 64 Kmart stores and 39 Sears stores, including the Kmart in Howland and the Kmart at 2235 E. State St. in Hermitage, Pa.

In November, Sears Holdings announced it would close the Austintown Kmart at 4475 Mahoning Ave.

Two years ago, the Boardman and Warren locations closed.

Huntington net income

COLUMBUS

Huntington Bancshares Inc. reported 2017 full-year net income of $1.2 billion, an increase of 67 percent from the previous year.

Net income for the 2017 fourth quarter was $432 million, or an 81 percent increase from the year-ago quarter.

The board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend on the company’s common stock of $0.11 per common share, unchanged from the previous quarter. The common stock cash dividend is payable April 2 to shareholders of record March 19.

Chemical income

MIDLAND, MICH.

Chemical Financial Corp. reported 2017 fourth-quarter net income of $9.4 million compared with 2017 third-quarter net income of $40.5 million and 2016 fourth-quarter net income of $47.2 million.

For the year, net income was $149.5 million compared with net income in 2016 of $108 million.

The board of directors declared a first quarter of 2018 dividend on its common stock of $0.28 per share. The first quarter of 2018 dividend will be payable March 16 to shareholders of record on March 2.

FNB 4Q earnings

PITTSBURGH

F.N.B. Corp. reported earnings for the fourth quarter of 2017 with net income available to common stockholders of $22.1 million compared with fourth quarter of 2016 net income available to common stockholders that totaled $49.3 million.

For the full year of 2017, net income available to common stockholders was $191.2 million compared with full-year income of 2016 of $162.9 million.

Kimberly-Clark plans job layoffs

dallas

Americans are having fewer babies, and diaper makers are feeling the pinch.

Kimberly-Clark said Tuesday it will cut as many as 5,500 jobs, or 13 percent of its workforce, in an attempt to lower costs.

The job cuts come as the maker of Huggies and Kleenex – like other consumer-products companies – is seeing a decline in demand for some core products as U.S. birthrates fall.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the general fertility rate fell 11 percent between 2007 and 2016. Only provisional data is available for 2017, but it tells the same story: Women under 30 are having fewer children and aren’t in the market for diapers, tissue and other products that new parents buy in bulk.

Staff/wire reports