Palm Beach, FL 11/15/11 (StreetBeat) --Staples Inc. (Nasdaq: SPLS) shares fell more than 6 percent in pre-market trading, Tuesday, on news the company had missed analyst expectations for third-quarter sales.In an earnings release, Staples chairman and CEO Ron Sargent said the company's North American results showed "strong profit improvement in a tough environment." However, "International results were weaker than expected," he acknowledged.
In addition, Staples lowered its guidance for the fourth quarter of 2011, predicting "flat to low single-digit" growth in sales compared to the year-ago period. Staples expects to achieve fourth-quarter diluted GAAP earnings per share in a range of 39 cents to 43 cents, according to the company's earnings release.
Staples posted earnings per share of 47 cents, an increase of 18 percent from the third quarter of 2010, and in line with Wall Street expectations. However, the company's $6.6 billion in quarterly sales was shy of the $6.7 billion analysts had predicted for Staples, according to a Bloomberg consensus estimate.
Third-quarter international sales hit $1.3 billion, a decrease of 7.0 percent on a local currency basis, compared withy the year-ago period, reflecting a 12 percent drop in comparable store sales in Europe and weak sales in Australia, the company said.
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