Earnings - 20th Nov 2008

4:12PM Brocade beats by $0.03, beats on revs (BRCD) 3.27 : Reports Q4 (Oct) earnings of $0.20 per share, $0.03 better than the First Call consensus of $0.17; revenues rose 17.2% year/year to $398.5 mln vs the $389.2 mln consensus. As of the end of Q3 08, Brocade suspended its share repurchase program in connection with the Foundry Acquisition. As of the end of Q4 08, Brocade had $414.1 mln remaining under its $800 mln total stock buyback program authorization.

4:11PM Autodesk beats by $0.03, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS below consensus, revs below consensus (ADSK) 16.82 -1.04 : Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.56 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.03 better than the First Call consensus of $0.53; revenues rose 12.8% year/year to $607.1 mln vs the $605.9 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.28-0.34, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $0.51 consensus; sees Q4 revs of $525-550 mln vs. $611.17 mln consensus.

4:09PM Salesforce.com beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs below consensus; guides FY10 revs in-line (CRM) : Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.08 per share, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.07; revenues rose 43.2% year/year to $276 mln vs the $273.6 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.06-0.07 vs. $0.07 consensus; sees Q4 revs of $284-285mln vs. $289.69 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for FY10, sees FY10 revs of $1350-1360 mln vs. $1.36 bln consensus. Cash from operations for the fiscal third quarter was approximately $17 million, compared to $52 million in the year-ago period and $53 million in Q2. Total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities finished the quarter at approximately $805 million, a decrease of approximately $19 million from Q2 and up approximately $234 million from October 31, 2007.

4:05PM Dell beats by $0.06, misses on revs (DELL) 9.81 -0.54 : Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.37 per share, $0.06 better than the First Call consensus of $0.31; revenues fell 3.1% year/year to $15.16 bln vs the $16.22 bln consensus. Co said, Global industry demand in the quarter slowed through October, adversely affecting the company's cash conversion cycle, which ended at negative 25 days, and resulted in negative cash flow from operations of $86 million. As company growth stabilizes, more typical cash generation is expected to resume. Year to date, cash flow from operations was $1.2 billion and the company ended the quarter with $8.9 billion in cash and investments. In the quarter, Dell spent $400 million to buy back 21 million shares. Laptop units were flat as the company transitioned to the new Latitude Series E and Dell Precision laptop product lines, ranging from the lightest ultra-portable in the company's history to the most powerful mobile workstation. Server units declined 4 percent and growth in storage revenue was flat. Enhanced services revenue, which is largely driven by Dell's commercial business, was up 7 percent to $1.4 billion. Dell believes that global IT end-user demand will continue to be challenging. Against this backdrop the company will continue to focus on improving competitiveness, lowering costs and improving its mix of products and services to optimize liquidity, profitability and growth. The company will continue to incur costs as it realigns its business to improve competitiveness, reduce headcount in certain areas and invest in infrastructure, growth opportunities and acquisitions.

12:52PM AMEDISYS reaffirms 2008 guidance (AMED) 36.93 -7.14 : Co reaffirms guidance for FY08 (Dec), sees EPS of $3.20-3.25 vs. $3.24 First Call consensus; sees FY08 (Dec) revs of $1.15 -$1.175 bln vs. $1.17 bln consensus.

8:56AM Helmerich & Payne reports EPS in-line, misses on revs (HP) 23.53 : Reports Q4 (Sep) earnings of $1.18 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of $1.18; revenues rose 16.3% year/year to $522.5 mln vs the $558.7 mln consensus.

8:51AM School Specialty misses by $0.17, reports revs in-line; lowers FY09 guidance (SCHS) 19.90 : Reports Q2 (Oct) earnings of $1.76 per share, $0.17 worse than the First Call consensus of $1.93; revenues fell 0.7% year/year to $390.3 mln vs the $391.5 mln consensus. Co issues lowers guidance for FY09, sees EPS of $2.04-2.24, excluding non-recurring items, vs. $2.24 consensus, prior guidance $2.27-2.43; sees FY09 revs of $1.065-1.08 bln vs. $1.08 bln consensus, prior guidance $1.077-1.08 bln.

8:44AM Pantry beats by $0.21, reports revs in-line; provides FY09 merchandise revenue guidance (PTRY) 21.41 : Reports Q4 (Sep) earnings of $1.03 per share, $0.21 better than the First Call consensus of $0.82; revenues rose 24.5% year/year to $2.51 bln vs the $2.51 bln consensus. Co anticipates FY09 merchandise revenue of $1.6-1.66 bln and with gross margin of 36.0-36.6%.

8:32AM Barnes & Noble misses by $0.05, misses on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line; guides FY09 EPS below consensus (BKS) 13.10 : Reports Q3 (Oct) loss of $0.21 per share, ex-impairment charge, $0.05 worse than the First Call consensus of ($0.16); revenues fell 4.4% year/year to $1.12 bln vs the $1.17 bln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $1.40-$1.70 vs. $1.65 consensus. Co issues downside guidance for FY09, sees EPS of $1.30-$1.60 vs. $1.63 consensus, down from previous guidance of $1.70-$1.90. For the full year, the company now expects comparable store sales at Barnes & Noble stores to decline 5% to 6%.
8:32AM S&P futures vs fair value: -5.60. Nasdaq futures vs fair value: -10.80. : Stock futures have taken a dip following disappointing weekly claims data. Initial jobless claims for the week ended November 15 totaled 542,000. Economists projected claims would total 505,000. Claims for the prior week were revised slightly lower to 515,000. This marks the first time initial claims have been at or above 500,000 for two consecutive weeks since 2001. Further reflecting labor market weakness, continuing claims totaled 4.01 million, which is up from the 3.90 million continuing claims registered last week. The consensus called for continuing claims of 3.90 million this week.

7:58AM E-House China beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 revs below consensus (EJ) 4.50 : Reports Q3 (Sep) earnings of $0.13 per share, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.12; revenues rose 28.4% year/year to $39.3 mln vs the $39.6 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees Q4 revs of $36-40 mln vs. $47.73 mln consensus. Co said, "Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of 2008, we expect conditions within China's real estate sector to remain challenging. China's economic growth continues to show obvious signs of slowing down and consumer sentiment continues to deteriorate. Available data on real estate transactions in October continue to reveal a sharp decline in volume for most major cities compared to last year. However, the Chinese government recently announced a series of measures aimed at stimulating economic growth and encouraging real estate purchases. These measures include lowering interest rates, reduction of taxes for certain types of real estate transactions and favorable mortgage lending terms for certain types of real estate purchases. While the immediate impact of these measures may be limited, we believe that these measures will clearly help China's economy and the real estate sector over the long term."

7:54AM Cato beats by $0.02, reports revs in-line; guides Q4 EPS in-line (CTR) 12.31 : Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.03 per share, $0.02 better than the First Call consensus of $0.01; revenues fell 1.1% year/year to $182.8 mln vs the $181.2 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for Q4, sees EPS of ($0.01)-$0.04 vs. $0.01 consensus. This estimate is based on comparable store sales in the range of down 3% to flat for the quarter.

7:32AM Dick's Sporting Goods beats by $0.01, beats on revs; guides Q4 EPS below consensus (DKS) 9.56 : Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.07 per share, excluding non-recurring items, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.06; revenues rose 10.2% year/year to $924.2 mln vs the $914.8 mln consensus. Co issues downside guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.49-0.56 vs. $0.62 consensus.

7:07AM Children's Place reports EPS in-line, revs in-line (PLCE) 17.55 : Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.84 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of $0.84; revenues rose 4.6% year/year to $450.6 mln vs the $450.6 mln consensus. Co also says comparable store sales increased 2% in the third quarter of 2008 on top of a 1% increase for the same period last year.

7:04AM The Buckle beats by $0.01, reports revs in-line (BKE) 15.39 : Reports Q3 (Oct) earnings of $0.64 per share, excluding unrealized impairment of certain investments in auction-rate securities, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of $0.63; revenues rose 25.7% year/year to $210.6 mln vs the $209.5 mln consensus. Comp store sales for the quarter increased 19.1% year/year.

7:00AM PepsiCo reaffirm its previously announced full-year 2008 core EPS guidance. (PEP) 52.10 : Co announces during comments today at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer and Retail Conference, PepsiCo will discuss its North American beverage innovation plans for 2009 and reaffirm its previously announced full-year 2008 core EPS guidance. PepsiCo's full-year 2008 core EPS guidance excludes commodity mark-to-market impact, Productivity for Growth costs and PepsiCo's share of The Pepsi Bottling Group's (PBG) restructuring initiative and impairment charge announced by PBG on November 18, 2008. PBG's restructuring initiative and impairment charge is expected to have a $0.07 per share adverse impact on PepsiCo's full-year 2008 reported EPS but, as noted above, will not impact PepsiCo's full-year 2008 core EPS results. (Briefing.com note: on Oct 14th the co issued FY08 EPS guidance of $3.67-3.68, excluding non-recurring items, (consensus $3.67). The co also said it expects full-year 2008 performance of 3 percent to 5 percent volume growth and low-double-digit net revenue growth)

6:03AM Stage Stores beats by $0.01, misses on revs; guides Q4 EPS in-line, revs below consensus; guides FY09 EPS in-line, revs in-line (SSI) 3.85 : Reports Q3 (Oct) loss of $0.19 per share, excluding non-cash goodwill impairment charge, $0.01 better than the First Call consensus of ($0.20); revenues fell 6.0% year/year to $333.8 mln vs the $340.9 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for Q4, sees EPS of $0.64-0.70 vs. $0.66 consensus; sees Q4 revs of $448.0-457.0 mln vs. $469.83 mln consensus. Co issues in-line guidance for FY09, sees EPS of $0.75-0.81, excluding non-cash goodwill impairment charge, vs. $0.77 consensus; sees FY09 revs of $1.51-1.52 bln vs. $1.54 bln consensus.