Friday’s biggest gaining and declining stocks

Atlanta, GA 5/18/12 (StreetBeat) -- Here are some of the stocks making notable moves in Friday trading:

Gainers

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (NYSE: AU +6.26%) added about 5%. The stock also rose on Thursday, when hedge-fund manager John Paulson made positive comments about the stock at a conference in New York. Paulson rarely speaks publicly about his positions and strategies.

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM +9.78%) shares added 10% after the business software company reported stronger-than-expected results and its sales outlook beat Wall Street’s estimates.

Foot Locker (NYSE: FL +9.71%) rose 9% after posting a 30% jump in first-quarter profit while handily surpassing Wall Street’s top and bottom line estimates.

And Brown Shoe (NYSE: BWS +17.81%), the parent of the Famous Footwear chain, rose 12% after its adjusted first-quarter profit topped analyst estimates. The company also raised its full-year outlook.

Decliners

Autodesk Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK -15.97%) shares fell 15%. On Thursday, the company issued a cautious forecast for earnings and revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2013.

Kirkland’s (Nasdaq: KIRK -14.01%) fell 14% after reporting a drop in quarterly profit on the back of slumping sam-store sales.

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Kirkland's (Nasdaq: KIRK) posts 38 pct drop in 1Q profit

Northern, WI 5/18/12 (StreetBeat) -- Kirkland's (Nasdaq: KIRK) first-quarter profit tumbled 38 percent, as sales dropped off in the latter half of the quarter and the home decor store responded with promotions and price cuts.

The company also issued disappointing predictions for the current quarter and full year.

For the quarter ended April 28, the Nashville, Tenn., company earned $2 million, or 10 cents per share, down from $3.2 million, or 15 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

Sales rose 3.6 percent to $97.8 million from $94.4 million.

The profit beat Wall Street predictions by a penny, according to a FactSet poll.

Kirkland's said its revenue at stores open at least a year fell 1.2 percent.

As it stepped up marketing to counter a drop off in sales, margins and same-store sales both fell, the company said.

For the current quarter, Kirkland's projected a loss of between 7 cents and 11 cents per share on $94 million to $96 million in sales. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected a loss of 1 cent per share on $95.1 million in revenue.

For the full year 2012, the company projected a profit of 87 to 97 cents per share on sales growth of between 7 percent and 9 percent. Based on Kirkland's 2011 sales of $430.3 million, the guidance implies fiscal 2012 sales of between $460.4 million and $469 million.

Analysts polled by FactSet expect a 2012 profit of $1.06 per share on $469 million in revenue.

Kirkland's Inc. opened 5 stores and closed 17 during the quarter, bring its store base to 297 as of April 28. The company said it still expects to open 40 to 45 new stores and close about 30 stores this year.

Please contact www.thestreetbeat.com for interest in our latest investor relations platform the “CEO Interview Series” with its host Steve Kanaval. The package includes a one-on-one interview with a seasoned industry professional; published segment to our web site with embedded audio/video file; and a compressed file that can be easily e-mailed out to your current and/or potential investors. Please e-mail bflautt@gmail.com or call (662) 392-0740 for pricing and scheduling.

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