Tag - Outd

Outdoor Channel Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: OUTD) CEO Roger Werner Jr. said the TV channel operator has “substantial business” on the books for 2008. Werner made the comments during a morning conference call.

“It’s way too early in the year, however, to tell you that we have the budget made and that the first quarter’s a slam dunk or anything like that. We operate in the same economy as many other companies and, as we all know, the economy’s kind of softening up,” Werner said. “We’re off to a good, good start in ’08. We’re still feeling very optimistic about our ability to make our budgets.”

Before the opening, Outdoor reported that it swung to a third-quarter profit of $1.5 million, or $0.06 per share, up 128% from a loss of $5.3 million, or $0.21 per share, a year earlier. The results significantly beat Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate of earning $0.01 per share.

The Temecula, Calif.-based firm’s quarterly revenue rose 12% to $12.7 million, compared with $11.3 million during the year-ago quarter. Analysts, on average, expected $12.5 million in revenue.

In November, the Outdoor Channel announced that it had to restate its financials for the first two quarters to correct for executive salary expenses.

“This has taken us longer than we first expected. It has been a very high priority for us to complete the review as quickly as possible,” Werner said. “We appreciate patience from our investors and hope that this is the last of these kinds of delays."