leading footwear retailer brown shoe company inc reported a 6.4 percent increase in consolidated net sales to $523,283,000 for the first quarter of fiscal 2005, ended april 30, versus $491,832,000 in the year-ago period.
net earnings were $3,779,000 for the quarter, or $0.20 per diluted share, versus net earnings of $8,526,000, or $0.45 per diluted share, in the first quarter of 2004. first quarter 2005 net earnings reflect the following charges:
(i) a $9,564,000 tax provision, or $0.51 per share, related to the repatriation of $60,463,000 of foreign earnings under the american jobs creation act of 2004; and
(ii) an after-tax cost of $635,000, or $0.03 per diluted share, for a bridge loan fee incurred with financing the acquisition of bennett footwear (completed april 22, 2005). in the year-ago quarter, results reflected costs of $2,079,000 after-tax, or $0.11 per diluted share, for the assimilation and transition of the bass footwear license, which brown shoe acquired february 2, 2004.
excluding these items in both years, adjusted earnings per share for the first quarter 2005 were $0.74 per share versus $0.56 per share in the first quarter of 2004. this compares to the company's prior guidance of $0.60 to $0.70 per share, which had reflected $0.05 per share in first quarter costs to expense stock options under sfas no. 123(r).
as a result of the securities and exchange commission's april 15, 2005 announcement delaying the required implementation date for sfas no. 123(r), the company has decided to delay adoption of the new rule until fiscal 2006.
marketing@alchempro.com
