So Far, CMGI Passes Earnings Test (CMGI)

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

CMGI, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMGI) shares are trading up slightly in after-hours trading  after earnings.  The supply chain manager and internet incubator posted a 14.4% drop in revenues to $278.0 million, but gross margins improved to 14.0% compared with 12.5% in the prior year period.  It also posted a 23.7% drop in operating income of $8.6 million.  Its net income was down 22.5% to $0.58 EPS on $27.8 million.

This one tends to operate on a pattern of its own because the targets for earnings and revenues are few and far between, but we did give a full earnings preview here.  As far as guidance, it continues to expect revenue of $1.10 billion to $1.15 billion and operating income to be about 2.0% to 2.5% of revenue in fiscal 2008.

While CEO Joe Lawler was a bit cautious in tone, he did note, "…….The challenging economic environment requires lower cost supply chains, faster time to market and swifter response to promotions and liquidations to reduce excess inventory. These factors play to the strengths of our business model and are contributing to our growing sales pipeline. Based on the strength of that pipeline, we are maintaining our full year financial guidance.”

As of January 31, CMGI’s working capital of $320.4 million comprised of cash and equivalents of $265.2 million. During the quarter, CMGI repurchased approximately 507,000 shares on the open market for about $6.0 million.  It has spent roughly $14 million of its $50 million share buyback plan. 

CMGI closed down 4% at $10.62 in regular trading, and shares are up 3% at $10.95 in after-hours trading.  The company’s market cap at the close was $520 million at the close.

Jon C. Ogg
March 10, 2008

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618