1-800-Flowers.com up on improved Q1 results
1-800-Flowers.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: FLWS) shares are up after the gift retailer said strong flower sales helped narrow its first-quarter loss. Before the opening, the Carle Place, N.Y.-based firm reported a quarterly loss of $5.8 million, or $0.09 per share, on par with analyst expectations and above a loss of $7.4 million, or $0.11 per share, a year earlier.
Revenue for the three months ended Sept. 30 climbed 6.3% to $145.8 million, below Wall Street projections of $146.9 million and compared with $137.1 million a year earlier.
“For the period, revenue growth was driven by the strong performance in our Floral category, including our flagship 1-800-Flowers.com consumer brand and our BloomNet wire service business,” CEO Jim McCann said in a statement. “Importantly, during the quarter we continued to enhance our gross profit margin and operating expense ratio, achieving improvements of 110 basis points and 100 basis points respectively.”
The gift retailer affirmed its fiscal 2008 outlook, saying it expects revenue in the range of $976.5 million to $994.7 million, in line with analyst estimates of $984.9 million and from $912.6 million last year. 1-800-Flowers.com’s management said the firm expects an annual profit of between $0.34 and $0.35 per share, on par with Wall Street expectations of $0.35 per share and compared with $0.26 per share last year.
In afternoon trading, FLWS shares are up 2.68%, or $0.34, at $13.02. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged from $5.08 to $13.42.
