Today a steady intraday boost arrived for retailer KCP just before the company announced earnings. Nice.
Then, they announced .17 EPS, 3 pennies above street estimates. Nice, nice.
Then, they even mentioned a buyback of stock, which is a common way of inflating EPS, making it look attractive to other investos who might consider a buy. Nice, nice, nice.
Then, just before folks got ready to advise their friends to buy more KCP, the company casually mentioned cutting their quarterly dividend in half. I'm sorry, wrong answer, Mr Quiz Show. That's when all the investors jumped out the window.
"I'm gonna spend your money to buy back my own stock, because we got a feeling we're not gonna make as much in profits as we used to, and I'm gonna give you a 50% paycut to do it. Thank you for your patronage." Why are you using money you should be giving to me to buy back your overpriced, overbought stock? You should pay me more to compensate for any anticipated stock depreciation. That's whack yo.
SEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.
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March 4, 2008 4:07 PM EST
Kenneth Cole Productions, Inc. (NYSE: KCP ) reports Q4 EPS of $0.17 (ex-items), 3 cents better than estimates. Revenues were $132.1 million vs. $128.24 million consensus.
The Company also announced today that its board of directors, to best utilize the Company's financial resources in the interest of shareholders, approved a 4 million share increase to the company's authorized stock buyback plan.
Additionally, given the reduced cash flow anticipated during 2008 and the expected use of cash reserves for stock repurchase, the board of directors authorized a quarterly dividend of $0.09 per share, compared to the prior level of $0.18 per share. The dividend is payable on March 28, 2008 to shareholders of record as of March 14, 2008.
$15.49 (03/04/08)
