RadioShack reports 1Q EPS drop

FORT WORTH, Texas RadioShack reported net income of $38.8 million, or 30 cents per diluted share, for the quarter ended March 31. Net income for the quarter ended March 31, 2007, was $42.5 million, or 31 cents per diluted share. First quarter 2007 net income was positively impacted by a $14 million benefit to gross profit associated with the recapture of federal telecommunication excise tax and negatively impacted by an $8.5 million charge related to employee separations. These items increased earnings per share in the March 2007 quarter by 2 cents.

The company reported a comparable-store sals decrease of 4% for the first quarter of 2008. According to RadioShack, the decline was mainly driven by lower sales in Sprint postpaid wireless partially offset by strong sales increases in GPS units, prepaid wireless sales, video gaming, digital cameras and media storage.

Total sales in the first quarter of 2008 were down $43.3 million to $949 million versus total sales of $992.3 million for the same period last year, driven by the decline in comparable-store sales.