Retail

Can New Product Lines Really Save Quiksilver?

Quiksilver Inc. (NYSE: ZQK) reported its earnings Thursday after the market closed and has received more than just a negative reaction. The company reported -$0.20 in operating earnings per share, against Thomson Reuters estimates of $0.03 per share, but it was even worse after items. These negative earnings have made a serious impact on what investors think about the company.

The company’s net revenue in this last quarter was down 19% from a year ago to $396 million. Its gross margin also fell to 47.8% from 49.1%. The big hit on the net loss was a $183 million in asset impairment charges, mainly tied to writing off the carrying value of goodwill that was attributed to EMEA segment. What is interesting about that reference though is that revenue was down 27% in its America’s segment, but was down 13% in EMA segment revenue.

Another issue is that the Quiksilver brand revenues were down 17% and the Roxy brand revenue was down 9%. The problem areas were a 34% revenue drop in the DC brand and Wholesale revenue fell 30%.

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Quiksilver has been an interesting story through time, having been public since the early 1990s. Its stock tanked during the recession only to recover handily by the end of 2013. At one point this was even considered a buyout candidate, but that has been years ago, and it seems hard to imagine that a buyout could be accepted by management at these low prices, even if rumors came back out of the blue.

If Quiksilver is going to turn itself around, it likely will have to do so on its own. The company’s CEO indicates in the report that the company is encouraged by the positive feedback received on its Spring 2015 product lines, both for apparel and footwear. Quiksilver shareholders better hope he is right.

The latest drop in share price still generates a $340 million market cap. Another issue is that the company’s cash balance has fallen to $107.858 million at the end of July 2014, versus $471.55 million at the end of July 2015. Last year’s revenue was $1.81 billion, down from more than $1.9 billion in each of the prior two years and still lower than the $1.837 billion for fiscal 2010.

In Thursday’s after-hours, the share price dropped as much as $2.27, nearly 25%, from its close of $2.83. Quiksilver has recently traded at $1.94, marking a decrease of 31% on the day about two hours after trading started. The big issue is that it hit a 52-week low of $1.88, and more than 17.5 million shares had traded hands. This 30% drop or so has already seen what is a six-times normal volume spike on a day where many key stocks are seeing light trading volume.

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Over the course of the past 52 weeks, Quiksilver’s stock has fluctuated greatly, however most of this change has been within the past six months. To start the year, the stock held consistently within the range of $6 to $8 for the first half. Then the share price took a hit in June, when it dropped to $3.13 from $5.86. This came on the heels of the previous earnings report, which was equally unfavorable. Quiksilver has taken a beating in earnings alone in just these past six months and has been pushing lower and lower in its 52-week range.

Quiksilver’s stock has a 52-week range of $1.92 to $9.29.

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