H & R Block Stock Shares Selloff After Earnings Announcement

 | Aug 31, 2017 02:17AM ET

H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB)

H & R Block , the ubiquitous 62 year old tax preparation company in the U.S.A., founded by brothers Henry and Richard, reported their fiscal 2018 first quarter earnings on Tuesday August 29, 2017 after the market closed at 4pm EDT.

The behemoth firm has roughly 12,000 retail establishments located around the world to assist in proper filing of legal documents related to all things subjected to taxes. The company pays a hefty dividend of 3.28 % annually and institutions own about 95 % of the outstanding shares-of which 12 % of them are in the short interest.

Shares closed down 3.46% or down -$1.01 at $28.22 when the market closed in the after hours session. However, in the regular trading session shares were down only

$ -0.38 closing at $29.23 which was down 1.28%.

h3 HRB Numbers/h3

The company reported a larger than expected loss. They lost $131 million dollars versus $124 million dollars in the same period last year. This equates to losing $.63 this quarter versus $.56 last year this time.

Many analysts were coming in around a loss of $.62 per share ( pretty good estimate, all things considered). Perhaps the analysts were so very close to the actual numbers because H & R Block typically always reports a loss in the 1st quarter due to their seasonal weighing on earnings.

h3 Company Comments/h3

Tom Gerke , H&R Block’s interim president and chief executive officer had this to say in the Conference Call:

We are building on our momentum from fiscal 2017 to deliver another successful tax season for both our clients and our shareholders, The management team has been hard at work to execute against our plans and we’re excited to have Jeff Jones, a strong and experienced leader, join us as our new CEO.”

Tony Bowen , H&R Block’s chief financial officer added,

“Our fiscal first quarter results were in line with expectations and reflect the seasonality of our business, Our preparation for the upcoming tax season is progressing well and we look forward to sharing more detail regarding our financial outlook during our second quarter earnings call.”

h3 The Charts/h3