Jo-Ann Stores indicates fiscal 2010 earnings blow away its guidance

Jo-Ann Stores Inc. (NYSE: JAS) has issued a preliminary year-end report that indicates fiscal 2010 earnings finished well above an estimate made in November.

The fabric and craft retailer based in Hudson said because of better-than-expected sales in the fourth quarter, which ended Jan. 30, the company expects to report earnings per diluted share for the quarter of $1.32 to $1.34, which would be a big jump from its year-earlier earnings of 79 cents a share.

For all of fiscal 2010, Jo-Ann expects to report earnings per share in the range of $2.47 to $2.49. Those results would be a huge increase over Jo-Ann's fiscal 2009 results of 86 cents a share, and would exceed by a healthy margin Jo-Ann's previous forecast made Nov. 5 of full-year earnings in a range of $1.95 to $2.05 a share.

Jo-Ann said sales in the latest fourth quarter increased 5.3%, to $602.2 million from $571.9 million for the like period last year. Same-store sales rose 4.4% compared with a 2.9% decline in the fourth quarter last year. Traffic was up 3.0% and average ticket increased 1.4%.

Jo-Ann said sales for fiscal 2010 increased 4.7%, to $1.99 billion versus $1.90 billion in fiscal 2009. Same-store sales rose 3.1% compared with a 0.5% increase last year.

Jo-Ann said it plans to release fourth-quarter and year-end results March 10 and will provide an outlook for fiscal 2011 at that time.

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