Dillard's (DDS) stock is surging 6.11% in Thursday's intraday trading following the release of its first-quarter financial results, which significantly exceeded analyst expectations. The department store chain demonstrated resilience in a challenging retail environment, with earnings per share (EPS) beating Wall Street estimates.

For the quarter ended April 30, Dillard's reported a basic EPS of $10.39, comfortably surpassing the average analyst estimate of $9.14. While this represents a decrease from $11.09 per share in the same quarter last year, it still impressed investors. The company's net income for the quarter stood at $163.8 million, with total revenue reaching $1.55 billion. Although revenue showed a slight decline of 1.6% compared to the previous year and marginally missed the $1.54 billion forecast, the strong bottom-line performance appears to have overshadowed this.

Other notable aspects of Dillard's Q1 results include a retail gross margin of 45.5% and operating expenses of $421.7 million. The company also reported that comparable store sales decreased by 1% during the quarter. Despite the challenges in the retail sector, including inflationary pressures and changing consumer behaviors, Dillard's ability to exceed earnings expectations has clearly resonated positively with investors, driving the significant stock price increase.