Cost Plus Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know (CPWM)

Cost Plus Shares Plunged: What You Need to Know

Watch stocks you care about

The single, easiest way to keep track of all the stocks that matter...

Your own personalized stock watchlist!

It's a 100% FREE Motley Fool service...

Click Here Now

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of specialty retailer Cost Plus (Nasdaq: CPWM ) were heavily discounted today, falling as much as 12% in intraday trading after the company reported fourth-quarter results.

So what: Cost Plus' fourth quarter and 2010 fiscal year actually weren't that bad. The company has been busy trying to turn around its business, and it appears efforts are paying off. Fourth-quarter sales were up 7% from last year on the back of 7.7% growth in same-store sales. The company's gross margin expanded, and the percentage spending on selling, general, and administrative costs fell. Earnings per share for the quarter came in at $1.23, a penny shy of analysts' estimates but up nearly 30% from 2009.

Now what: It would appear that it was the company's guidance that has investors breathlessly selling shares today. While management's projections for the next quarter look favorable when compared with analysts' estimates, expected growth for the entire year is lower than hoped for. For all of 2011, the company is looking for revenue between $946 million and $956 million and earnings per share of $0.45 to $0.55. Wall Street was expecting $956 million in revenue and $0.79 in per-share profit.

Want to keep up to date on Cost Plus? Add it to your watchlist.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. You can check out what Matt is keeping an eye on by visiting his CAPS portfolio, or you can follow Matt on Twitter @KoppTheFool or on his RSS feed. The Fool's disclosure policy prefers dividends over a sharp stick in the eye.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment icon found on every comment.