The company is traded on the NASDAQ stock market under the symbol FLWS, with the initial share of $21.00. However the latest stock price was reported on NASDAQ on Friday March 11, 2005 as $7.76. The Wall Street Journal stated that on Friday march 11, 2205 during a press release 1-800-flowers announced that they were buying Cheryl & Co., which is a cookie and baked goods company, for $40 million. This buyout should be completed by the end of March. The stock price may rise due to this buyout. This is going to be a good investment for 1-800-Flowers, this shows how they as a company are continuously expanding and finding new ways to attract more and more consumers.
According to industry studies 1-800-Flowers represents an $80 billion dollar market. The breakdown of this $80 million that the company is made of is mainly home d�cor with $30 billion, then surprisingly floral with $18 billion, then gifts worth $15 billion, then garden with $13 billion and lastly the gourmet section which was worth about $5 billion. Coming from an investor�s point of view this is a great company to invest in. This past year the company has had nothing but increases in every department. Their cash and investments increased by $81 million dollars this past year, it went from $30 to $111 million. Consumers alone this past year has increased by 3.1 million, mainly due to the fact that they have so much to offer all in one website and they are cost effective. The past year they also reported an increase in online revenues of 16%, which means that it grew to $307 million. Practically every household these days has one or more computers, typically with an online service provider. E-businesses like this one do so well economically due to the fact that the normal person doesn�t want to leave their home to buy a gift or flowers when they can just do it online. 1-800-Flowers is so concerned with their customers they make sure that there is a good customer service center to help everyone and to strengthen the existing relationships with past customers, that they increased their annual report order rate to 45%.
This year 2005 seems to be an even better year then 2004. Stated in The Business Wire this past Valentines Day was record breaking for the company. The company stated that they filled orders for "enough roses and tulips to stretch from New York to Chicago and back again." This was huge for the company because they obviously would want to do better then they did last year in revenues, and with the record breaking sales for the holiday and with the buyout of Cheryl & Co. it seems like this could be a possibility for this year. All in all 1-800-Flowers is a good company and a very successful one at that. They are probably going to be around for quite some time if they continue to do what they are doing now. An investment with this company would probably be one that you wouldn�t regret in the long run.
