GUITAR CENTER EARNINGS UP 33% END-QUARTER YIELDS ABRUPT TURNAROUND.Byline: Suzie St. John Staff Writer AGOURA HILLS - After the company reported a surprisingly strong 33 percent increase in its fourth-quarter sales, shares of Agoura Hills- based Guitar Center Inc. rose 6.88 percent Wednesday, closing at $10.6875. The report was the first good news in eight months for the nation's leading retailer of guitars, amplifiers, percussion instruments This is a list of percussion instruments. Tuned percussion
But for the fourth quarter, Guitar Center reported sales rose to $193 million from $146 million in the same quarter in 1998. Net sales Net Sales The amount a seller receives from the buyer after costs associated with the sale are deducted. Notes: This amount is calculated by subtracting the following items from gross sales: merchandise returned for credit, allowances for damaged or missing goods, freight for the year increased slightly lower, gaining 28 percent to $620 million from $486 million. Complete financial results - including earnings results - won't be released until mid-February. ``If you are a retailer and didn't do well in the fourth quarter, something's wrong because everyone was reporting increases,'' said Jackie Fernandez, a partner in the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. office of Deloitte & Touche LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol . ``Whenever we're in a good economy, you see higher-ticket items take a jump, so a company like Guitar Center will do well. Plus they are a good company with a solid name.'' Guitar Center operates 69 stores around the country. In Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, , the company has outlets in Brea, Covina, Fountain Valley Fountain Valley, city (1990 pop. 53,691), Orange co., S Calif.; inc. 1957. Chiefly residential, Fountain Valley also has diverse manufactures, including apparel, computer equipment, semiconductors, and medical equipment. A U.S. navy helicopter facility is there. , Hollywood, Lawndale, San Bernardino San Bernardino, city, United States San Bernardino (săn bûr'nədē`nō), city (1990 pop. 164,164), seat of San Bernardino co., S Calif., at the foot of the San Bernardino Mts.; inc. 1854. and Sherman Oaks. The company saw its biggest fourth-quarter jump in its Internet division, which increased 434 percent. Online sales escalated from $1.4 million in the fourth quarter of 1998 to $7.4 million for 1999, representing less than 4 percent of all sales. Guitar Center expanded its hold on the musical instrument retail industry when it purchased Musician's Friend for $48.3 million last May. The Oregon-based company was the nation's biggest catalog retailer of musical instruments and also operated one of the Internet's most successful retail musical sites. But less than a month after the merger, Guitar Center's stock dropped 27.4 percent after company officials surprise Wall Street by warning that the recent merger and slowed sales of key product lines would cut the firm's second-quarter earnings by approximately 8 cents per share Cents per share The amount of a mutual fund's dividend or capital gains distributions that a shareholder will receive for each share owned. . The company's share price continued a steady, slow decline for the rest of the year. Company officials were unavailable for comment Wednesday, a spokeswoman said, because they were traveling. |
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