OfficeMax Incorporated Earnings: Margins Suffer as Costs Rise, Profit Falls

February 23, 2012

OfficeMax Incorporated (NYSE:OMX) reported a lower net income in fourth quarter, missing analysts’ estimates. OfficeMax provides office supplies and paper, print, and document services, technology products, and furniture to businesses, government offices, and consumers.

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OfficeMax Incorporated Earnings Cheat Sheet for the Fourth Quarter

Results: Net income for the specialty retail company fell to $3.4 million (3 cents per share) vs. $12.7 million (14 cents per share) a year earlier. This is a decline of 73.2% from the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 3.9% to $1.84 billion from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: OfficeMax Incorporated fell short of the mean analyst estimate of 16 cents per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $1.8 billion.

Quoting Management: “We closed out a challenging 2011 by continuing to streamline our operations and strengthen the core business,” said Ravi Saligram, President and CEO of OfficeMax. “We are making progress in executing the strategic plan we announced in November.”

Key Stats:

A year-over-year revenue increase last quarter snaps a streak of four consecutive quarters of revenue declines. The worst quarter in that span was the first quarter, which saw a 2.8% decrease.

Gross margin shrank 0.7 percentage point to 24.5%. The contraction appeared to be driven by increased costs, which rose 5% from the year earlier quarter while revenue rose 3.9%.

After beating analyst estimates for the two previous quarters, the company fell short of forecasts. In the third quarter, it topped the mark by one cent, and in the second quarter, it was ahead by 7 cents.

Looking Forward: The average estimate for the first quarter of the next fiscal year is steady at 15 cents a share. The average estimate hasn’t changed from 61 cents per share for the fiscal year.

(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com