Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory tumbles on lower Q3 earnings
Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMCF) shares are turning sour after the chocolate and candy store franchiser posted third-quarter earnings of $1.27 million, or $0.19 per share, from $1.33 million, or $0.20 per share, a year earlier.
Quarterly sales weren’t sweet either, with revenue falling to $8.77 million, from $9.09 million during the same period of 2006.
The Durango, Colo.-based company’s same-store sales at franchised retail outlets declined about 205% during the recent quarter, compared to the year-ago quarter.
Going forward, Rocky Mountain said it an 8% to 12% increase in fiscal 2008 earnings compared to fiscal 2007.
"The modest decline in third-quarter revenues and earnings was not entirely unexpected and was primarily due to the shifting of specialty market sales to a warehouse club customer from the third quarter of last fiscal year into the second quarter in the current fiscal year, along with a decrease in same-store pounds of product purchased from our factory relative to the prior-year period," CFO Bryan Merryman said in a statement.
In today’s trading, RMCF shares were down 13.74%, or $2.11, at $13.25. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged from $12.59 to $18.04.
