Kohl's Corp. reported a slightly higher third-quarter profit on Thursday, as sales perked up later in the period, and the department store operator forecast same-stores sales will rise during the current holiday quarter.

Kohl's, which has 1,146 stores, expects holiday quarter earnings of $2.00 per share to $2.08 per share, compared with the $2.16 Wall Street analysts had been expecting, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

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The retailer, which competes most directly with Macy's Inc and J.C. Penney Co Inc, forecast sales at stores open at least year would be up 3 percent to 4 percent in the quarter that includes the Christmas period, an improvement over the 1.1 percent pace in the third quarter.

Kohl's posted a third-quarter profit of $215 million, or 91 cents per share, up slightly from $211 million, or 80 cents per share, a year earlier.

As previously reported, overall sales rose 2.6 percent to $4.49 billion.