1-800 Flowers Wilts: Brean Murray Has Hold Rating As Company Misses Earnings (FLWS)

Brean Murray Carret & Co. has a Hold rating on shares of 1-800 Flowers.Com, Inc. FLWS after the company reported an earnings miss. In the research report, Brean Murray Carret & Co. writes, "We are reiterating our Hold rating, lowering our FY11 EPS and rolling out our FY12 EPS projection of a loss of $0.06 4QFY10 EPS estimate with a loss of $0.02 including on termination and legal costs. While rates of decline in moderated somewhat over the past year, continued weakness in the consumer environment remains the largest obstacle for 1 800 Flowers highlighting in returning to profitable growth. Given our expectation that consumer discretionary spending will continue to remain constrained for the back half of 2010, we expect the company to continue to report pressure on results and are cutting our estimates significantly. That said, we believe our estimates could prove conservative if the consumer returns. Management has done a solid job of shifting the product mix to higher-margin items and reducing overall expenses; while it has been occluded by the current slowdown, any signs of positive momentum should result in material leverage." Shares of 1-800 Flowers.com are down 2 cents to $1.98 in Friday trading.