Blue Nile (NILE-NASDAQ) is taking a bit of a haircut in after-hours trading because of its earnings report.  It posted $0.35 EPS and $90.7 million revenues, compared to $0.31 and almost $92 million in revenues. 

The company guided next quarter to $0.14 to $0.15 EPS (before $0.05 option charge) and revenues at $61-63 million; compared to estimates of $0.17 & $62.1 million.  It also forecast for FY2007 EPS at $0.80 to $0.85 (before $0.24 option charges) and revenues of $290-300M; compared to $0.92 & $302 million.

This probably isn’t an atrocious miss on the revenues but it isn’t exactly a huge winning outlook for a company with north of a 50 P/E ratio and one close to its highs. It closed down almost 6% at $38.60 today and is down 3% or so at $37.50 in after-hours; the 52-week trading range is $24.10 to $42.45 and shares were north of $41.00 at the open.  It doesn’t sound like Valentine’s Day is going to be that big for the company. 

Jon C. Ogg
February 12, 2007