Macy’s said on Monday that an employee had “intentionally” misstated and hidden up to $154 million in delivery expenses over the past few years, forcing the retailer to delay a much-anticipated earnings report that Wall Street uses to gauge the strength of holiday shopping.

The employee did not take money from the company, a person familiar with the matter said, but the company delayed releasing its full quarterly financial results until it completes an investigation.

The department store chain rushed to release abridged results, which were a mixed bag, with signs of weakness and pockets of strength.

Macy’s shares fell more than 8 percent in premarket trading after the surprise preliminary report. But it quickly pared back some of its losses, as investors tried to make sense of the mixed results along with the company’s reassurance that the employee error, which Macy’s said spanned the fourth quarter of 2021 through the most recent quarter, did not affect its cash flow management or vendor payments.

Macy’s sales in the third quarter fell 2.4 percent — below analysts’ expectations — to $4.74 billion. The company’s overall sales were dragged down by weak performance at Macy’s stores and its digital business.

But sales at 50 locations that represent the company’s future — based on geography, staffing and other factors — rose 1.9 percent, the third consecutive quarter of growth. And comparable sales rose at both Bloomingdale’s and Bluemercury, the company’s luxury brands. Those results are early signs that Macy’s latest strategy of investing in these parts of the business may be working.