Quarterly earnings calls are a great opportunity for investors to hear directly from the companies they've invested in and to get clarity from management when they answer questions posed by analysts. I listen to hundreds of calls every quarter, and I'm constantly surprised (and sometimes confused!) by the responses offered by management. This is the first in a series of occasional posts on some memorable quarterly earnings call moments.

Overstock.com (NASDAQ: OSTK). Chairman and CEO Patrick Byrne never ceases to . . . amaze me. While I sometimes come away from their quarterly call more perplexed than ever, Byrne's responses to questions certainly stand out. Here are some of the more memorable comments from their latest quarterly call, held on October 24, 2008.

While commenting on accounting errors that resulted in a financial restatement, Patrick Byrne explained it this way:

"We had been managing to a yardstick that turned out to have a bit of rubber in it at the end of the quarter."

Well, that certainly clarifies things!

Moving on to a conversation on EBITDA and Cap Ex, we hear that OSTK is:

". . . like the proverbial boa constrictor digesting a baby hippo. We ate the baby hippo about three years ago -- actually right now -- and it's moved its way through the boa constrictor."

Continue reading Caught on the earnings call: Overstock's CEO offers EBITDA without the 'A'

Caught on the earnings call: Overstock's CEO offers EBITDA without the 'A' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bear Stearns conference call: 'Untrue rumors' fueled concern originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Monday, March 10

• Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and InterActive Corp. (NASDAQ: IACI) to present at Bear Stearns Media Conference.
• Texas Instruments Inc. (NYSE: TXN) to hold mid-quarter update conference call at 5:00 pm.

Tuesday, March 11

• Foot Locker Inc. (NYSE: FL) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 9:00 am.
• Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) to hold analyst meeting at 9:00 am.
• Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 10 am.

Wednesday, March 12

• FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee Meeting on Schering-Plough Corp.'s (NYSE: SGP) sBLA for Pegintronfor treatment of melanoma at 8:00 am.
• Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) to host analyst/investor meeting at 8:30 am.
• Hot Topic (NASDAQ: HOTT) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 4:30 pm.

Continue reading Market highlights for next week: Texas Instruments to hold mid-quarter update

Market highlights for next week: Texas Instruments to hold mid-quarter update originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Yahoo!'s Q4 2007 earnings transcript

Yahoo!'s Q4 2007 earnings transcript originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) had a good quarter. The market did not agree. But operating income was up 105% to $3 billion on $10.7 billion in sales. Guidance for the current quarter was for revenue as high as $10 billion. Gross margins took a very big jump to 58%, indicating that a price war with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD) may be behind the companies.

One of the things that management made clear on the earnings call (see the full transcript here) is that mobile chips are becoming a bigger portion of the company's business. That allows the firm to diversify away from PCs and servers and move into a fairly fast-growing part of the tech market. Sales of handset devices around the world are not showing any signs of slowing.

Management also pointed out that PC sales are expected to grow in the "low double digits" in 2008. From Intel's standpoint that is very good news. It is also an indication that its forecasts for 2008 are very conservative. If so, the sell-off in the company's stock may not have been justified.

The other critical point which management made is that the company is seeing rapid growth in emerging markets. Even if there is a slowdown in the US, this may well be offset by very strong results in Asia. Intel's sales in Europe were very strong in Q4. That could continue into next year.

A final note on the company's comments is that it sees itself being "on track to deliver that third billion dollars of overall structural and efficiency program spending" -- This is likely to allow the company to keep its gross margins close to 60%, and that is impressive.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

The Intel (INTC) earnings call transcript: Rays of hope originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• net sales and revenue rose 6% year over year
• net sales rose 5%
• income from continuing operations saw a 23% jump year over year

Continue reading Liveblogging Deere & Co. (DE)'s third quarter conference call

Liveblogging Deere & Co. (DE)'s third quarter conference call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 09:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Liveblogging Cisco Systems fourth quarter conference call

Liveblogging Cisco Systems fourth quarter conference call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Liveblogging Starbucks Q3 earnings call

Liveblogging Starbucks Q3 earnings call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 01 Aug 2007 16:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Starbucks Q3 earnings preview

Starbucks Q3 earnings preview originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 19:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Liveblogging Archer-Daniels-Midland Q4 earnings call

Liveblogging Archer-Daniels-Midland Q4 earnings call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

AES a high quality stock suffering from some price weakness originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

National Semiconductor: Holy margin expansion originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 08 Jun 2007 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Target Corp Q1earnings preview originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 21 May 2007 16:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• SEC to hold Open Commission Meeting at 9am
• McKesson Corporation (NYSE: MCK) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5pm. Analysts will concentrate on McKesson's pharmaceutical solutions revenue, new distribution clients/new business, new IT solutions introduced, labor/benefits costs, operating expenses, sector position by business line, and margins.

• Echostar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) to hold shareholder meeting at 2pm.
• Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) to report Q2 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.
• Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ: ERTS) to report Q4 earnings; conference call at 5pm. Investors will look for comments on how the company is integrating its game line-up onto the three new game systems -- PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii.

• Eastman Kodak Company (NYSE: EK) to hold a shareholder meeting at 1pm.
• Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) will hold a two-day capital markets meeting in Stockholm.

• Viacom Inc (NYSE: VIA) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am. In addition to motion picture results, analysts will focus on VIA's broadcast advertising revenue, and the company's efforts to broaden its relatively-tight-demogaphic cable television audience.
  
• Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) to hold Windows Mobile Business Update at 12pm.
• Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) to hold a shareholder meeting at 5pm in Mountain View.

• American International Group (NYSE: AIG) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 8:30am. Analysts will concentrate of AIG's overall premium growth for its property/casualty unit, along with improved cost controls company-wide -- a pivotal factor for a superior performance, moving forward.
  

Market highlights for next week: Google shareholder meeting Thursday originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 04 May 2007 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Liveblogging Blockbuster's Q1 conference call

Liveblogging Blockbuster's Q1 conference call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 02 May 2007 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• CA World 2007 to be held in Las Vegas
• L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LLL) to report Q1 earnings, conference call at 10 a.m.

• Defense companies Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) to report Q1 earnings.
• Low-cost airline Jetblue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU) to report Q1 earnings. Will Jetblue follow Southwest Airlines Co.'s (NYSE: LUV) disappointing report (which caused two analyst downgrades)? Or is the recent increased investment buy George Soros a sign that Jetblue is doing better?
• Alternative Energy Conference, hosted by Friedland Investment Events, to be held in NY.

• The Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10:30 a.m. Will Boeing discuss Airbus's decision to halve the price of its A350 planes in order to become more competitive with Boeing's 787 Dreamliner?
• Market darling Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will also report Q2 earnings, conference call at 5 p.m.

• XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: XMSR) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10 a.m. Investors will look for any comments relating to the state of the potential merger with Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI).

• YRC Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: YRCW) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:30 a.m.

Market highlights for next week: Apple one of many co's reporting originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 10am.
• PDUFA date for Neurochem Inc's (NASDAQ: NRMX) Eprodisate extended from today to 7/16.

• Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Hearing on XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: XMSR) / Sirius Satellite Radio Inc (NASDAQ: SIRI); Webcast at 10am.
• J.C. Penney Co Inc (NYSE: JCP) 2-day Analyst Meeting.
• Technology giants International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM), Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) and Yahoo Inc (NASDAQ: YHOO) to report after the market close.

• United Technologies Corporation (NYSE: UTX) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:30am.
• Motorola Inc (NYSE: MOT) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

• Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 4:30pm.
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NYSE: AMD) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5:30pm.

• Caterpillar Inc (NYSE: CAT) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:30am.
• Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) to hold Analyst Meeting.

Market highlights for next week: Google and Yahoo reporting originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Apr 2007 16:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

To read Part 1 of live blog of TWX conference call, see this post.

9:40 am: SUMMARY OF Q&A:

WONG from Bear Stearns on CABLE asks about integrations and roll-out of commercial phones.
ANSWER: LA is complicated and may take a year and a half; think "we'll" lose some in first half 2007 and gain it back in the second half because of line-up changes. Other system measurement in other cities is how this conclusion is drawn. DALLAS is consistent and 2007 is a stabilizing year with a plant upgrade and digitalphone launch (available to 1/4 million now and will be available to 500K in March). CAP-EX is "450 to 550," lower than they originally expected.

MAVEN of Sanford Bernstein: What are you seeing on AOL pageviews without stabilization or growth?
ANS: the reason they think it will grow in 2007 is after a 4-5% decline in Q4 2006; they moved several titles out of the mix and that accounted for part of the drop. The new sign-ups may be accounting for part of the drop; as that continues to move to free they think it will lead to a base of page views increasing. Email is seeing page view growth and this is a precursor to overall increases down the road. The broadband usage is often 50% more views per sub, and they aretrying to switch them. The new search tool is going to increase. ANOTHER QUESTION on the TENURED BASE: it hasn't been fully broken out but they want to discuss in a call-back.

Q: SINGER of COWEN & CO....On publishing are all the personnel changes done and what sort of EBITDA do they see in 3 years.
ANS: They want to see EBITDA Growth in 2007 on all businesses including publishing.
Even Time Magazine they want to see growth in EBITDA in 2 years but they aren't proviong guidance.

Q: JESSICA REIF COHEN of MERRILL LYNCH: ON CABLE GROWTH AND PROGRAMMING COSTS UP? ALSO ON MORE COLOR FOR REVENUE OPPORTUNITIES IN AD AND BUSINESS OFFERINGS?
ANS: the earnings going up in 06 in Turner and HBO but maybe not revenues; the loss of non-Sopranos were lumpy as a result; net margin is steady; CNN saw revenue and earnings up; as well as cartoons. Q4 had some programming one-time costs that were attributed to marketing and were 'lumpy' and impacted from shut down costs at WB and Turner by $114 million, but not indicative of a full-year. The HBO has tough comparables because of Soprano's. ON CABLE: They said it's too early in 2007 to give real guidance right now; but the small-mid business has potential for entire size of residential.

Q: NOTO of GOLDMAN SACHS: How much of margin gap can they bring up for Adelphia users? At AOL is it more leveraged and seeing better CPM's?
ANS: as far as what can happen with costs they cant really forecast exact number even though they have it in plans. To increase the margin gap will come from revenue side, so out of the 10% gap they want to bring up penetration and revenues. Since they are coming out of bankruptcy there is no low hanging fruit is what PARSON's keyed in on. ANOTHER Q: When do they see the triple-bundle help growth? ANS: in second half in LA/DALLAS; 80% of core sub-loss is solely from LA & DALLAS.

JASON of CITIGROUP: There is a controversy on Verizons fiber roll-out and video penetration; do they see the same adoption rate at TWC? ANS: The roll-out is comparable but overbuilders only cover 3% overlap right now and reduces the ability of others to compete. Video from them is not really a difficult challenge. ANOTHER Q: In last MAY Investor Day, do they expect to move to 1 GIG in all markets? That speed is more coincidental and switching will be to more than enough capacity.

LAST Q: CREDIT SUISSE: On AOL about optimism for 2007 online market growth or will it slow? IS there an optimal number of a basing out in paying access subscribers? ANS: Growth in ad revenues industry wide will grow in 2007 like it did this year, but not 20% to 30% for 100 years. They want to grow at or above industry and taking share. ON optimal subscriber numbers, the cost structure is not where it cant make it efficient and economical; but no specific numbers. It wants to go for broadband users down the road and they want to move and offer the broadband to subs because they are the lions share of the future.

CONFERENCE CALL ENDED.

Live Blogging Q&A Session from Time Warner earnings conference call originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 31 Jan 2007 10:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Markets closed for New Year's Day holiday
• PDUFA date for Amylin Pharmaceutical's (NASDAQ: AMLN) Byetta

• Markets closed in observance of President Ford's death

• Earnings conference calls for AngioDynamics (NASDAQ: ANGO), Landec Corporation (NASDAQ: LNDC) and the Topps Company (NASDAQ: TOPP)
• Sales conference call for American Eagle Outfitters (NASDAQ: AEOS)

• Earnings conference calls for Arrow International (NASDAQ: ARRO), Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) and Sonic Corporation (NASDAQ: SONC)
• Sales conference calls for Abercrombie & Fitch (NYSE: ANF), AnnTaylor Stores (NYSE: ANN) and bebe stores (NASDAQ: BEBE)

• Shareholder meeting for Serono S.A. (NYSE: SRA)

Market highlights for next week originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 29 Dec 2006 14:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

• Markets are closed for the Christmas holiday

• Healthcare conference calls: Merrill Lynch 10:00am, Bank of America 10:30am, Bear Stearns 11:00am

• Delta and Pine Land Company (NYSE: DLP) will hold an earnings conference call at 10:00am
• Bear Stearns will hold a retailing-broadlines conference call at 10:00am

• Learning Tree International Inc (NASDAQ: LTRE) will hold its earnings conference call
• Newpark Resources, Inc (NYSE: NR) will hold its shareholder meeting at 11:00am
• Hurray! Holding Co., Ltd (NASDAQ: HRAY) to hold a firm-sponsored meeting with Think Equities

• The Mills Corporation (NYSE: MLS) will hold its shareholder meeting at 10:00am

Highlights for next week originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 22 Dec 2006 17:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.