Rarely has an earnings report been so overshadowed by events at the company making it.
Tomorrow, golfing clothier Cutter & Buck
Ah, but we were talking about the earnings .
Wall Street Wisdom:
- General consensus. Two analysts follow Cutter: One's a buyer and the other's a holder.
- Revenues. The prediction is that Cutter will report a 6% sales gain versus the year-ago quarter, for $25.7 million in total.
- Earnings. Cutter is expected to report a $0.06-per-share loss, 50% worse than last year's $0.04 loss.
Margin watch:
Management shakeups often give investors the willies, but at Cutter, I suspect, investors will just heave a sigh of relief. Cutter has seen gross, operating, and net margins all take a long-term slide over the past 18 months. Sometimes, change is good.
Margins % |
7/04 |
10/04 |
1/05 |
4/05 |
7/05 |
10/05 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gross |
46.7 |
47.2 |
47.3 |
47.9 |
47.3 |
46.3 |
Op. |
11.8 |
11.8 |
11.1 |
9.8 |
8 |
4.9 |
Net |
7.9 |
8.5 |
8.8 |
6.8 |
6 |
4.4 |
Foolish lookout:
With profits likely to go missing tomorrow, we're freer than usual to focus on the company's free cash flow, which, in contrast to its GAAP earnings, is usually positive in Cutter's Q3 reports. Free cash flow has declined 16% against just a 6% drop in sales over the past six months, as growing inventories and uncollected accounts receivable eat into the firm's cash flow. Let's look -- and hope -- for a reversion to the mean tomorrow.
Competitors:
Cutter competes with the likes of Nike
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Fool contributorRich Smithdoes not own shares of any company named above.