These results certainly jive with a housing recovery, jobs recovery, and consumers spending again.
Once you plow through all the PR bullshit and CEO bloviating about the glorious future of on-line sales, you get to the facts. And they paint a disastrous picture.
They also paint a picture of an idiotic greedy CEO playing the Wall Street buyback game.
Here is a link to the press release:
http://www.pier1.com/Press-Releases/ir_press-releases,default,pg.html?nav=left
Here are the disastrous facts:
- Profit plunged by 49% versus last year’s August quarter.
- Profit is down 37% over the first six months.
- Revenue grew by 5.8%, but Inventory grew by 15.5% versus last year.
- Inventory is up 36% in the first six months. This is a disaster in progress.
- The boneheaded CEO of this retailer actually borrowed $198 million to buy back $155 million of stock. The stock is down 10% after hours to a new 52 week low. This idiot was buying back his stock at much higher prices. He deserves a bonus. Maybe he can issue himself some stock.
Day after day retailers report dreadful results, but the government and the MSM continue to lie and spew propaganda about the economic recovery. Results don’t lie, but politicians, bureaucrats, Wall Street shysters, and corporate media pundits do.
