This is a summary of the second quarter fiscal 2008 earnings call conducted by The Buckle, Inc. (BKE: chart) on August 21, 2008.

Management:
- President and CEO: Dennis Nelson
- VP of Finance and CFO: Karen Rhoads
- Corporate Secretary and General Counsel: Kyle Hanson
- Corporate Controller: Tom Heacock

Key Investor Issues:

- The apparel company earned $22.3 million, or 72 cents per share compared with a year-ago profit of $11.8 million, or 38 cents per share.
- Same-store sales rose 27.8% for the quarter.
- Revenue jumped 37% to $169.8 million, up from $124.3 million during the same period a year earlier.
- Gross margin for the quarter improved approximately 400 basis points to 41.4%.

Second Quarter Highlights:

Net income for the second quarter that ended August 2, 2008 was 22.3 million or $0.72 per share on a diluted basis and compares to 11.8 million, or $0.38 per share on a diluted basis for the prior year second quarter that ended August 4, of 2007.

Year-to-date net income for the 26-week period ended August 2, 2008 was 41 million, or $1.32 per share on a diluted basis.

That compares to 24 million, or $0.78 per share on a diluted basis for the 26-week period ended August 4, of 2007.

The current year general and administrative expenses for both the quarter and year-to-date period have been reported net of a $3 million gain that was from the involuntary conversion of one of the Company''s corporate aircraft to a monetary asset upon receipt of the insurance proceeds. The aircraft was destroyed by a tornado that hit the Kearney airport back in May. And the gain had a $0.06 per share after-tax impact on reported basic and diluted earnings per share for both the quarter and year-to-date period.

Net sales for the 13-week second quarter increased 36.6% to $169.8 million, compared to net sales of $124.3 million for the prior year second quarter.

Comparable store sales for the quarter increased 27.8% and that''s compared to the same period of the prior year.

Net sales for the 26-week year-to-date period ended August 2, 2008 increase 34.5% to $330.1 million compared to net sales of $245.4 million for the prior year 26-week period ended August 4, 2007. Comparable store sales for the period increased 26.7% compared to the same period of the prior year.

Gross margin for the quarter improved approximately 400 basis points to 41.4%.

This improvement was driven by an increase in merchandise margins, which had about a 95 basis point impact, and then also by the leveraging of the buying and occupancy costs, which had about a 295 basis point impact. These improvements were partially offset by an increase in expense related to the incentive bonus accrual.

For the year-to-date period, the gross margin improved approximately 300 basis points to 41.2%.

This improvement was driven by an increase in merchandise margins which had about a 90 basis point impact on the year-to-date period and by the leveraging of buying and occupancy costs, which had about 295 basis point impact. These improvements were partially offset by an increase in expense, related to the incentive bonus accrual.

The selling expense for the quarter was 19.7% of net sales, which was a reduction of approximately 50 basis points from the second quarter of fiscal 2007.

The reduction was driven primarily by a decrease as a percentage in net sales in the store payroll expense and by leveraging certain other selling expenses. The reductions were partially offset by an increase in expense related, to that incentive bonus accrual and also to a lesser extent to an increase in Internet related fulfillment and marketing expenses.

For the year-to-date period, selling expense was 19.7% of net sales, which was a reduction of 2 basis points compared to the same period of 2007.