Wall Street Watch Friday: Zumiez Wipes Out

Skateboarding is all about keeping your balance and avoiding the always-embarrassing face-plant.

Zumiez (ZUMZ) -- the retailer for edgy teen apparel, footwear, and gear with an extreme sports bent -- has fallen flat on its face, posting disappointing quarterly results on Thursday afternoon.

Looking back, it isn't so bad. Net sales soared 20%, fueled by a 9.5% spike in same-store sales. Zumiez's profit of $0.07 a share seems to be woefully short of the $0.13 a share that analysts were targeting, but the mall chain would've earned a better-than-expected $0.17 a share after backing out one-time acquisition and relocation costs.

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The scary part of the retailer's report comes in its outlook for the telltale back-to-school shopping season.

This should be a very strong quarter for Zumiez, but its guidance is calling for comps to slow to a range of 3% to 5% with earnings checking in between $0.42 a share and $0.45 a share. There are acquisition-related items baked into that bottom-line outlook, but even backing those out would find Zumiez earning far less than the $0.56 a share that Wall Street was forecasting.

See, kids: That's a face-plant.

Other Things Worth Watching

• Zumiez may have offered up an uninspiring outlook for the current quarter, but it was a different story at OmniVision Technologies (OVTI). The maker of image sensors that are popular camera components in smartphones and tablets posted sharp declines in revenue and profitability for its latest quarter, but its top-line guidance for the current was robust enough to send the shares initially higher on Thursday night.

• Time Warner's (TWX) HBO announced in a Thursday press conference that it will be launching a stand-alone premium movie streaming service in Scandinavia. This is the first time that HBO streaming will be available without an existing pay-TV subscription to a cable or satellite television company. Netflix (NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings -- whose own company is set to launch a now competing streaming service in Scandinavia -- congratulated HBO on the move. Then again, it could have also been a taunt to HBO's parent company.

Longtime Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of Netflix. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Netflix and Zumiez.