Kreme-Filled Earnings

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As August winds down, so does the quarterly earnings season. Sure, you have some notable names like H.J. Heinz (NYSE: HNZ), Brown-Forman (NYSE: BF.B), and H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) set to report this week, but it's not the same batch of head turners that paraded down the newswire since the middle of last month.

So let's turn a cautious eye toward Thursday, when Krispy Kreme (NYSE: KKD) will be rolling out with its second-quarter financials. It's been a brutal 2004 for the decadent doughnut specialist. The stock has shed nearly two-thirds of its value this year, and it's looking for any kind of break in the downturn.

Yes, the company that kneads good chews needs good news. The past has been glum. From the company faulting lower sales on the thinning guts of low-carb dieters to serious allegations stemming from its franchised store acquiring practices to a notable executive defection to Restoration Hardware (Nasdaq: RSTO) last week, if life is a box of doughnuts, why is Krispy Kreme always in a hole?

As a blemish on what has been an otherwise dazzling stock picking record of the Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter, Krispy Kreme has a growing crowd of skeptics to debunk with Thursday morning's second-quarter report.

It's not likely to succeed on that front. However, if the company is able to stick confidently to May's guidance, which called for earnings this year to come in between $1.04 and $1.06 a share -- pricing the stock at a reasonable 13 times earnings -- it may very well give the stock some support and buy the company some time to turn things around.

It's not relying on its glazed laurels the way it used to. The company has been going for the Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) crowd with its broader line of coffees and cold beverages. Later this month it will actually cater to the kid crowd when it rolls out a chocolate-iced doughnut topped with candy fish-shaped sprinkles to promote DreamWorks Animation's Shark Tale.

That last touch may be an intriguing novelty, but even Krispy Kreme will admit that it has a long way to go. In short, it's got bigger fish to fry.

Will kelp candy help bring Krispy Kreme back into your home, or have you written off doughnuts forever? What are the differences between good carbs and bad carbs? What are the drawbacks to following the Atkins-approved way? All this and more in the Low Carb Way of Life discussion board.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz wants to know if Krispy Kreme's association with DreamWorks means that green doughnuts are in the works. He does own shares in Krispy Kreme.