David Twiddy
June 30, 2008 - 07:18 a.m.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - H&R Block Inc., the nation's largest tax preparer, said Monday it swung to a fourth-quarter gain, helped by a record-setting tax season and the sale of its troubled mortgage furnish.
The Kansas City-based company earned $543.6 million, or $1.66 by means of share, in the three months ended April 30 compared with a loss of $85.6 million, or 26 cents per share, during the same period a year ago.
Excluding discontinued operations, including its Option One Mortgage Corp. subsidiary, the company declared it earned $691.1 million, or $2.11 per share, compared with $591.2 million, or $1.81 per share, from continuing operations a year ago.
Discontinued operations contributed a loss of $147.6 million, or 45 cents per share, compared to a loss of $676.8 a thousand thousand, or $2.07 per share, during the fourth quarter of 2007. The losses included the company adding about $203 million to its reserves for repurchasing defaulted mortgage loans, caligraphy down the value of residual interests and the costs incurred from the April 30 vent of Option One to an affiliate of billionaire investor Wilbur Ross.
H&R Block said revenue during the quarter rose 11 percent to $2.6 billion from $2.3 billion a year ago. It had a 1.9 percent increase in centre customers using the company's offices to file their income task returns in the latest quarter.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected adjusted earnings of $2.03 per share on $2.5 billion in revenue.
The circle said it expects to earn between $1.60 and $1.70 per share for continuing operations in financial year 2009, which is too magnanimous for analysts' predictions of $1.58 per proportion.
"While we are not providing earnings guidance beyond fiscal 2009, we are confident that for the three-year horizon through financial 2011, we can realize significant gains in earnings per allotment through unit increase, greater efficiency in our tax and other operations, and capital deployment, rather than relying solely on anniversary price increases for growth," Interim Chief Executive Officer Alan Bennett said in a release.
Bennett was named CEO last fall in imitation of former Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Ernst stepped down, ousted by the election of dissident shareholder Richard Breeden and brace others to the fare.
For the abounding year, the company said it lost $308.6 million, or 94 cents per share, compared with a loss of $433.7 a thousand thousand, or $1.33 per share, in 2007.
Annual revenues rose 10 percent to $4.4 billion from $4.0 billion a year earlier.
Analysts were expecting annual earnings of $1.35 per share on $4.3 billion in revenue.