1-800-Flowers Stock Hits New Highs on Strong Sales Outlook

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A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. So while few people likely order bouquets by telephone anymore, 1-800-Flowers’ name belies its upbeat outlook. That helped the shares climb more than 5% on Thursday to new highs, after the company’s strong fiscal fourth-quarter report.

1-800-Flowers.com

(ticker: FLWS) said it earned 23 cents a share on revenue that climbed 61.1% year over year to $418 million. Analysts were looking for per-share earnings of 19 cents on revenue of $373 million.

The company didn’t provide full-year guidance, citing the continuing impact of the coronavirus pandemic. However it did say that it expects revenue to climb between 40% and 45% in the current quarter, ahead of analysts’ expectations, including 30% to 35% organic growth. (Organic growth excludes recent acquisitions, like the company’s purchase of PersonalizationMall.com.) E-commerce revenue will grow by more than 70%, it predicts.

For the fiscal second quarter (which includes the holiday season), 1-800-Flowers said ongoing momentum should help to offset some headwinds related to the Covid-19 crisis, including higher operating costs and lower orders from mass-market retailers.

1-800-Flowers stock has surged more than 111% year to date, and has easily outpaced the

S&P 500

since Barron’srecommended the shares in May 2019.

The stock was up 5.2% to $31.18 in recent trading.

Write to Teresa Rivas at [email protected]