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Staples 4Q net tops forecast
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March 4, 1999: 8:40 a.m. ET
Office -supply retailer posts 10% gain in same-store sales, sets stock buyback
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Staples Inc., the office products retailer, Thursday posted earnings slightly above analysts' expectations for the fiscal fourth quarter.
Along with the strong results, Staples said it will repurchase $200 million of stock over the next 12 months. The shares will be added to the company's treasury and used for employee benefit, stock option and other corporate programs.
The Westborough, Mass.-based company said operating earnings for the three months ended Jan. 30 rose to $101 million, or 22 cents a diluted share, from $70 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier. The results were 2 cents above the consensus of analysts surveyed by First Call.
Including merger-related costs, net income for the quarter was $71 million, or 15 cents a share.
Sales for the period rose 23 percent to $2.1 billion. Comparable store sales rose 10 percent.
For the full year, the company's net income rose to $185.37 million, or 41 cents a diluted share, up from $167.91 million, or 39 cents, in the prior year. Sales rose 24 percent to $7.1 billion, and comparable store sales rose 11 percent.
Chairman Thomas Stemberg said he's pleased with the general improvement in Staples' sales and, in particular, with its efforts to sell products online.
"We want to sell our customers office supplies anyway they want to buy them," Stemberg told CNNfn Thursday morning. "We were just overwhelmed by the customer response to our launch of our Staples.com in the fall, and as a result of that we announced -- beyond a very significant investment we were already making in growing our electronic commerce business -- to invest an incremental $10 million in fiscal 1999 to further our efforts there."
Separately, the company announced the completion of its acquisition of Claricom, a distributor of telecommunications systems to small businesses. That's an area that's new to the company, and Stemberg said Staples "will acquire to gain that kind of expertise."
Staples shares closed Wednesday at 28, down 9/16. 
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Staples
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