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Heelys, Inc. (NASDAQ:HLYS) is being punished, again, in after-hours trading because of an earnings warning.  The Company currently expects net sales for the third quarter to be approximately $49 million compared to its previous guidance range of $55 to $58 million, and earnings per diluted share for the third quarter to be in the range of $0.22 to $0.23 versus the prior expectation of $0.28 to $0.30.

These CEO comments pretty much say it all.  Mike Staffaroni, President & CEP said, “Throughout the third quarter we took a number of steps to reduce the amount of inventory in our current domestic distribution channels, including increasing our national advertising and providing additional markdown assistance. While we appear to have made some important progress, the difficult retail environment over the past several months resulted in higher than anticipated order cancellations, increased promotional activity and rescheduled shipments, all of which negatively impacted our net sales and earnings. We continue to believe in the long-term prospects of our brand and products; however over the near-term, we expect that our business will remain challenging.”

It looks like the new video game inspired shoes aren’t going to help it yet.  Shares are now down 10% at $7.55 in after-hours trading and it has a $7.65 to $40.09 trading range since its IPO.  This looks like a new all-time low if these levels hold. 

Jon C. Ogg
October 24, 2007