Cost Plus fumbles on quarterly report

By Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 6/15/2007 1:08:00 PM

Oakland, Calif. – Home furnishings specialty chain Cost Plus World Market late yesterday re-stated its first-quarter earnings, reducing its net loss by $0.04 per share. The slightly better news, however, was not enough to lift the share price, which has been downtrending since March and today hovered near the 52-week low of $8.30.

The 296-store retailer had said that in its May 24 preliminary estimate that it “had not fully completed its analysis related to the adoption of FIN 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes.” After analyzing its tax items again, Cost Plus lowered its tax expense-related charges by about $900,000.

The actual result: the net loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2007 was $11.1 million, or $0.50 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $3.5 million, or $0.16 per diluted share, for the same period last year.