March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Saks Inc. and Neiman Marcus Group Inc. said quarterly profit increased as wealthy U.S. consumers continued spending and international tourists taking advantage of the falling value of the dollar bolstered sales.

Sales at Saks-owned stores open at least a year gained 9 percent, outpacing Neiman's 3.7 percent same-store sales advance.

Wealthier shoppers continued to spend while the biggest U.S. housing slump in a quarter century and $3-a-gallon gasoline discouraged lower-income families from buying. Shopping in New York and other major U.S. cities by international tourists benefiting from the dollar's decline also spurred sales.

``The luxury consumer continues to shop,'' Carla Casella, a fixed-income analyst at J.P. Morgan Securities Inc. in New York, said yesterday. ``They have not been as affected by the economic downturn as the lower-income consumer.''

Both New York-based Saks and Dallas-based Neiman said sales slowed in February. Neiman said today in a statement that same- store sales decreased 7.3 percent in February. Saks said same- store sales grew 3.4 percent last month.

Saks said net income increased to $39.5 million, or 26 cents a share, in the three months through Feb. 2. Profit missed the average estimate of analysts by 1 cent. In the year-earlier quarter, the owner of the Saks Fifth Avenue department-store chain earned $21.5 million, or 14 cents.

`Ace in the Hole'

``Their ace in the hole is the tourist spending,'' Patricia Edwards, a Seattle-based money manager at Wentworth, Hauser & Violich, said March 3. ``It was like the United Nations in there. The higher-end consumer also has held up better than the majority of shoppers.''

Excluding 7 cents of one-time gains, the company earned 19 cents a share, missing the 20-cent average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales rose 4.7 percent to $999.7 million in the latest quarter, the company said today. That beat the average estimate of analysts of $988.2 million, based on seven projections compiled by Bloomberg.

Saks rose 36 cents, or 2.3 percent, to $15.85 at 11:23 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Net income at Neiman Marcus rose 8 percent to $44.3 million in the three months through Jan. 26, the company said today in a regulatory filing. A year earlier, it had profit of $41 million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased to $187.3 million from $180 million a year earlier. Grant Jordan, a high-yield research analyst with Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, North Carolina, estimated Ebitda of $183 million. He didn't project net income.

Neiman, which doesn't have publicly traded stock, reports financial details because its debt is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $1.37 billion, Neiman said Feb. 7. Sales at stores open at least a year were boosted by an 8.4 percent jump at Neiman Marcus's two Bergdorf Goodman stores, which are located in New York, and a 5.2 percent revenue gain in online and catalog sales.

Same-store sales are a key measure of the retailer's health because they exclude recently opened or closed locations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Catts in New York at tcatts@bloomberg.net; Cotten Timberlake in Washington at ctimberlake@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 5, 2008 11:28 EST