Surf and skatewear maker Volcom Inc. saw its shares fall 8% Tuesday, a day after posting its second-quarter earnings results.
Costa Mesa-based Volcom said that its operating profit rose 41% to $7.6 million, versus a year earlier, on a 47% jump in sales to $35.9 million.
Net income fell 10% to $4.6 million in the period. The company said the decline was related to a higher tax rate the company pays now that it is a public company.
Last month Volcom and some of its shareholders sold $89 million in stock in its initial public offering. Shares zoomed 41% higher on the first day of trading and have advanced nearly 80% higher since.
Tuesday, though, they were off 8% to $31.3, after Piper Jaffray and Wachovia Securities initiated coverage on Volcom shares with “market perform” ratings.
Volcom designs edgy clothes for surfers, skaters and wannabes alike. It joined a select group of publicly traded surfwear makers, including industry leader Quiksilver Inc. of Huntington Beach and Irvine’s Billabong USA, whose parent Billabong International Ltd. is publicly traded in its native Australia.
Most other surfwear makers are small and privately owned or have been sucked up in a wave of recent acquisitions by big apparel makers such as Nike Inc., Warnaco Group Inc. and VF Corp.
Volcom said its expects sales to grow 25% to 30% in the second half of the year, compared to 2004.
