Friday May 26, 8:16 am Eastern Time
Office Depot sees Q2 well below estimates
NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) - Office supplies retailer Office Depot Inc (NYSE:ODP -
news) on Friday said it expected to miss current Wall Street second quarter estimates by at
least 18 cents per share, as profits were squeezed by a strong greenback that has reduced
the dollar value of foreign sales, plus softer-than-expected sales at stores open for at least
one year.
The Delray Beach, Fla.-based company said slow comparable retail store sales in the month of May, greater weakness in
foreign currencies, and cost savings efforts that have been taking longer to implement than expected are seen to depress second
quarter earnings to 4 to 6 cents per share, well below the 24 cents per share analysts consensus estimates quoted by First
Call/Thomson Financial, a research company that tracks forecasts.
``While we saw improvement in comparable store sales in the first quarter of this year, performance in the second quarter has
failed to meet our expectations,'' said David Fuente, chairman and CEO. ``The greatest sales shortfall occurred in the
technology area in our retail stores during the month of May.''
Fuente added, that his company, which operates 836 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, saw
improvements in retail stores performance in June, but he said that such upswing was not going to overcome sales weakness
earlier in the quarter.
``While our sales in local currencies in Europe actually are ahead of plan, weaker foreign currencies are having a negative
impact on our reported sales and earnings when they are translated into U.S. dollars,'' said Fuente.
The stock closed at 10-7/16 on Th |
