Whoa! Crocs (Nasdaq: CROX), the footwear and gear manufacturer, was down over 28% at the time of this writing during after-hours trading on Monday, April 14. The catalyst -- besides the fact that it's Crocs -- was a nasty little press release explaining management's belief that the company's first quarter will come in lower than expected in terms of net sales and earnings per share. Previously, Crocs was looking to do about $225 million for the top line and $0.46 per share for net income. Forget about it! Now expect between $195 million and $200 million for sales, and somewhere between a loss per share of $0.05 to break-even for the bottom line.

Well, the stock closed on Monday at $17.79, a little better than the 52-week low of $15.42 (keep in mind, the 52-week high is over $75!). According to AOL Finance, the stock, at the time of this writing, had an after-hours quote of $12.72. I'm not sure what the stock will do on Tuesday, but is it a trade? For me, no; for those who can't make it to Las Vegas and need to do some gambling, sure, you could play around with it.

I think the Crocs story is done for now. Its product portfolio is not one I have long-term confidence in. Crocs, in short, is not my kind of stock.

Disclosure: I don't own shares in any company mentioned here; positions can change at any time.

Wednesday morning, before the market opens, Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) will be releasing its first quarter 2007 numbers. Analysts are expecting that the company will be announcing earnings per share of $0.71.

Last week, Target's main competitor, Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) reported Q1 earnings that failed to impress Wall Street and additionally was forced to lower its Q2 outlook. Both Wal-Mart and Target recently went through a very poor April sales month. When the company announced its weak April sales figures it did not offer any outlook on its current earnings, but did state that same store sales should come in as expected for the first quarter.

Will Target come through with strong earnings? We will just have to wait and see on Wednesday morning, but at this point analysts are betting that it will. Most of the losses the stock took following the weak April sales numbers has already been made up in the market, and out of the 23 analysts who follow the stock, 18 of these maintain a buy rating with the remaining five suggesting holds.

We will be liveblogging Target's investor conference call with up to the minute coverage of the call in its entirety. The call is scheduled to get underway Wednesday morning at 10:30 AM EDT. Be sure to visit us at that time for complete coverage.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor'sObserver.

Trading has been halted on Limited Brands (NYSE: LTD), and reports are the company is selling a 67% stake in its youth-oriented Express Stores unit to private equity firm Golden Gate Capital for $548 million. What's more, management said it is evaluating "strategic options" (in other words, "sale") of its Limited Stores business, a brand targeted at older teens and young adults [updated 3:50 p.m. with release]. For 2006, Limited Stores' net sales were $493 million and it currently has 253 store locations.

Although the company is named after the Limited brand -- and the Express Stores are a spinoff of the Limited concept -- the majority of its revenue now is derived from the flagship Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works brands. As of February 2007, the Victoria's Secret segment comprised 1,326 stores; Bath & Body Works accounted for 1,546; and Express and Limited stores together were 916 outlets.

Interestingly, although sales are lower in the Express and Limited brands, they units are on an upward trend, and operating profit is growing much faster at these stores than at the Victoria's Secret/Bath & Body Works segment -- both of which reported profit down from the year-earlier period for the quarter ending February 3, 2007. With Q1 2007 EPS outlook being revised downward today, it seems that the company is taking advantage of the enhanced value of its two recent success stories before they're tainted by the poor results in the rest of the company's stores.

You have to wonder: is this a case of management battening down the hatches to focus on the profitability of its flagship brands, or opportunism?

[Photo Hans van de Bruggen]

Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) just crushed their earnings and revenues for what typically is the slow first quarter. Usually the first quarter is met with a yawn. I have written three posts in the last month that this first quarter would be different, and it was. The street was looking for earnings per share of $.63 -- .66 and Apple reported $.87 on revenues of $5.26 billion, 100 million more than estimates.

What tipped me off is Wall Street analysts usually leave big tech names alone during the first quarter and maybe do a quiet, back-of-the -envelope mid-quarter update. Apple just had too much momentum exiting the December 2006 quarter and the outlook was just getting too big. So four firms put out "real" updates and began to hint of better-than-expected first quarter numbers. I have been recommending Apple to my web site Insider Insights Club Members since last September at $66, when the site opened. But I have been on this story for three years plus and recommending the shares to my old institutional clients since $12.

Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) shares are down 8%, or $2.59, to $29.50 tonight after the internet company reported lower-than-expected profit of 10 cents a share (versus analysts' expectations of 11 cents). Investors were evidently expecting right along with analysts, as the stock had been up 1.52% as the market waited for Yahoo! to report its first quarter earnings. When they came in, the results of Project Panama weren't having the company-wide impact so many Yahoo! watchers had clearly hoped.

Says Jordan Rohan of RBC Capital Markets, "the company is clearly still in transition." From all I've heard, Yahoo! has been in transition (I like to call it "limbo" or maybe even mild "chaos") for the past few years. When will the transition end? As Jonathan Berr suggests, maybe it won't end until Terry Semel is out -- and, I'd argue, the transition will have another year to go from there.

Or even more. Yahoo! will soon be faced with the DoubleClick problem; the internet company has a close partnership with the advertising firm, and that firm has just agreed to be sold to Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG). As MarketWatch puts it, this will mean "it'll soon be paying its chief rival for services, and at the same time, giving Google more insight into Yahoo's own business."

I'm not a Yahoo! believer -- I have to wonder if it will ever be done with its "transition."

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) investors have something to cheer about today: the company announced first quarter, fiscal 2007 results that were exactly what analysts hoped they'd be. 26 cents a share, or $205 million, up 18% from the year-earlier quarter, on revenues of $2.4 billion, up 22% from the year prior.

In about 10 minutes, the analyst earnings call will begin. I'll be live blogging the call.

2:02 p.m. (All times Pacific.) The call has begun. Disclaimers... and the call is turned over to Jim Donald, CEO. As I mentioned, comparable store sales increased 6%; he breaks it down to 4% from number of transactions, 2% from value of transaction (connected to the increase in prices perhaps?).

2:02 p.m. The company opened 728 stores (awed voice) over two stores a day. The company is focused on balanced growth, and targeted investments. "Our food program this quarter was a significant contributor to our revenues... we have remained focused on expanding our lunch program..." 69% of company-operated U.S. retail stores now have lunches. Adds approximately $300,000 in average annual revenues to one store (big!). 1200 stores now offer warm breakfast items; aggressive plans to roll out warming platform over next couple of years. The warm sandwiches add (I think I heard this right) $135,000 in average annual revenue to one store. Both warm breakfast sandwiches and lunch programs are planned to be in all company-owned U.S. stores in a few years.

2:06 p.m. Raves over the Starbucks Card -- helps promote customer loyalty, it's huge, a great gift. I must admit I just bought my sister-in-law a Starbucks Card for her birthday...

Analysts expected Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) to earn 26 cents a share for the fiscal first quarter ended December 31, 2006. Starbucks earned? 26 cents a share. Right on the money.

Not only did we see exactly-met earnings, we also saw a same-store sales growth of a comfortable 6% -- nothing like the 4% that had everyone running scared this fall. Other bullet points on the report included net revenues of $2.4 billion, net earnings of $205 million, an increase of 18% over the year-earlier quarter, and "record quarterly Starbucks Card activations of $287 million" up 30%.

Disappointment hidden on page 2: evidently the bottled Frappuccino coffee drinks and DoubleShot espresso drinks, and the Starbucks ice cream, aren't doing so well; although it had a very small impact on the bottom line it's an interesting sideline to track.

Starbucks investors seemed quite happy, though, sending the stock up sharply in afterhours trading. SBUX closed out the trading day at $34.94, up 38 cents or 1.10%, and was falling a bit before the results; then bounced back up to $35.72, up 2.23% from yesterday's close.

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

When Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ:SBUX) presents its fiscal first quarter 2007 earnings on January 31, the company might want to roll out a new numbered cup, with the quote, "Can't Starbucks just serve its holiday beverages year-round?" Its eggnog lattes and maple macchiatos have customers slurping each winter, and investors licking their lips in anticipation of seasonally spicy earnings.

According to First Call, analysts expect the coffee retailer to earn 26 cents a share, a big bump of 36% over the year-ago quarter. But for analysts who are hoping for a whopping growth rate? They don't sound so hopeful. William Blair analyst Sharon Zackfia is worried about the holiday merchandise -- the red ceramic mugs, the CDs, the bears. "Starbucks' pre-holiday markdowns on seasonal merchandise were earlier and more aggressive this year and post-holiday inventory levels were higher leading to subsequently deeper markdowns," she wrote, and it's certainly true that the Starbucks outlet on my corner was packed with holiday goodies in the weeks after Christmas (we picked up a set of coffee-cup ornaments for half price).

With a wealth of small changes to its business -- including a bigger focus on low-margin, but not labor-intensive items like books, music and those pretty red-themed mug; a bigger push into breakfast with eggy biscuity sandwiches; and a focus on spending more for more socially reponsible coffee -- the variables are many. And investors are skeptical; in the three months since the last earnings release, the stock is down about 13%. Are you really this skeptical?

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) first quarter earnings were strong, with revenue of $10.8 billion and net income of $3.48 billion. Everyone is looking forward, and investors don't know quite what to think: at first blush of the earnings release, the stock was down a few cents, and now has recovered in after hours trading to $28.52, up 17 cents from the market close.

Colleen Healy and Chris Liddell have just gotten on the conference call for the usual disclaimers.

2:38 p.m. [all times Pacific]: all results have come in at or above the high end of guidance, says Chris proudly. If you've never heard his voice, it's worth it: he sounds like a proud and very financially-savvy butler. He points out that the company is averaging one acquisition a month -- I don't know if I've even noticed. I'll have to pay more attention.

2:42 p.m. Colleen is giving details on first quarter performance, briefly, "in order to allow more time for your questions." It's all about the questions... She says the company made significant development on "all the products in the pipeline" and points out how the company's 11% revenue growth was driven by well-received new product launches, especially in the previously mentioned Entertainment and Devices division a.k.a. the Xbox 360.

2:45 p.m. Strong performance in the small and medium business divisions. Non-annuity growth was relatively week due to the anticipation (apprehension) of new Vista and SQL server software.