By Nicole Maestri

NEW YORK (Reuters) - AnnTaylor Stores Corp (ANN.N: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a quarterly loss on Friday, hurt by restructuring charges, and forecast profit below expectations, saying the current fiscal year will be "challenging."

The news sent shares of the women's apparel retailer, which operates its namesake stores and the LOFT chain, down 11 percent in afternoon trading.

"The macro environment has certainly had a major impact on our traffic trends as well as the level of promotional activity required to motivate clients to make a purchase," Chief Executive Kay Krill said on a conference call.

Standard & Poor's Equity Research lowered its recommendation on the stock to "hold" from "buy."

"While Loft stores are gaining traction, suit business at Ann Taylor stores is weak and traffic is slow at both concepts. We project a continuation of these trends in the near term," wrote S&P Equity analyst Marie Driscoll in a note.

Its fourth-quarter net loss was $6.7 million, or 11 cents per share, compared with net income of $21.5 million, or 31 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding a restructuring charge, the retailer earned 19 cents per share. On that basis, analysts, on average, had been expecting profit of 20 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates.

Net sales dropped 1.6 percent to $600.8 million from $610.5 million a year ago.