American Greetings Sees 2Q Net Slide 63%

Hurt by weaker sales and a year-earlier one-time gain, greeting card company American Greetings (NYSE:AM) revealed on Wednesday a 63% dive in second-quarter net income.

The Cleveland-based company said it earned $8.5 million, or 21 cents a share, in the quarter ended Aug. 27, compared with a profit of $23.1 million, or 59 cents a share. Excluding one-time items like a year-earlier tax benefit, it earned 29 cents a share.

Revenue sank 3.8% to $342.8 million amid a 6.8% decline in North American card sales. International revenue was flat last quarter.

“I am pleased with our overall performance in the first half of this year. While we continue to see an erratic recovery in the economy and its effect on our top line, our team has executed well on cost containment and that execution has directly led to healthy cash flow,” CEO Zev Weiss said in a statement.

American Greetings stood by its forecast for fiscal 2011 cash flow from operations of about $165 million and its capital expenditure estimate of $40 million.

Shares of American Greetings rose 0.39% to $20.75 in Wednesday’s premarkets. The stock was down more than 5% in 2010 as of Tuesday’s close.