UPDATE: 1-800-Flowers.com Posts Higher Q2 Profit

reported a rise in its earnings for the fiscal second quarter. The Carle Place, New York-based company posted quarterly earnings of $45.8 million, or $0.68 per share, compared to $17.5 million, or $0.27 per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Adjusted net income jumped to $55.7 million, or $0.83 per share, versus $17.5 million, or $0.27 per share, in the year-ago period. Its net revenue from continuing operations surged to $534.3 million from $266.3 million, while total adjusted net revenue were $549.7 million for the quarter. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.80 per share on revenue of $534.7 million. Revenue from Consumer Floral segment climbed 2.5% to $99.6 million, while BloomNet Wire Service revenue gained 1.0% to $20.1 million. Gourmet Food and Gift Baskets revenue jumped 177.1% to $414.7 million from $149.6 million. Gross profit margin widened 330 basis points to 45.0% from 41.7%. Adjusted EBITDA surged 188.8% to $100.7 million. Jim McCann, CEO of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, said, “During the fiscal second quarter, we more than doubled our revenues and tripled our bottom line results year-over-year, reflecting contributions from our Harry & David brand, which we acquired at the start of the period. Importantly, we also achieved top-line growth of nearly 5 percent across all three of our business segments – excluding the Harry & David contributions – when adjusted for the impact of the Thanksgiving-day fire at our Fannie May warehouse and distribution center in Maple Heights, Ohio. Thankfully no one was injured, however, the fire severely damaged our facility and destroyed the inventories and equipment stored there. As a result, we had extremely limited supplies of our Fannie May and Harry London chocolate during the key holiday season, reducing revenues for the quarter by nearly $14 million.” 1-800-Flowers.com reiterated its forecast for fiscal 2015. 1-800-Flowers.com shares gained 3.14% to close at $7.89 on Friday.