Staples Inc. (SPLS), whose website had trouble keeping up with the crush of Black Friday traffic, is scheduled to discuss its third quarter 2009 financial results in a conference call Tuesday, December 1, at 8:00 AM ET. You can catch the live webcast of the call on the company's website.
During the three months that ended in October, Staples executives sold shares and the company was named one of the world's 100 hardest working brands. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expect the world's biggest office supply superstore operator to report that earnings for that period fell 9.5% from a year ago to $0.38 per share. Revenue for the quarter is expected to be 7.3% lower to $6.5 billion.
Looking ahead, analysts so far expect to see $1.12 per share (-13.2%) earnings and revenue of $29.9 billion (+3.7%) for the full year. Staples' earnings have only fallen short of analysts' consensus expectations in one of the past five quarters.
The long-term EPS growth forecast is 14.3%, which is better than that of competitors Office Depot Inc. (ODP) and OfficeMax Inc. (OMX). Staples' earnings multiple is 19x, and the First Call consensus recommendation remains to buy SPLS, with a mean price target of $24.81. FBR Capital sees the stock as expensive, but the Motley Fool likes Staples' efforts to diversify.
Shares reached a 52-week high of $23.74 Monday, and have climbed more than 5% in the past three months.
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