Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE: WHR) rose Thursday after reporting a third-quarter earnings beat. The company issued strong FY2018 earnings guidance.
Third-quarter GAAP net earnings was $210 million, or $3.22 per diluted share, compared to $276 million, or $3.72 per diluted share, reported for the same prior-year period. Third-quarter ongoing earnings per diluted share were $4.55, compared to $3.83 in the same prior-year period.
This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 23.64%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this maker of Maytag, KitchenAid and other appliances would post earnings of $3.63 per share when it actually produced earnings of $3.20, delivering a surprise of -11.85%.
Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times.
Whirlpool posted revenues of $5.33 billion for the quarter ended September 2018, missing some estimates by 2.15%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $5.42 billion. The company has not been able to beat consensus revenue estimates over the last four quarters.
Said CEO Marc Bitzer, "Very impressive results in North America and a favorable tax rate allowed us to deliver our highest quarterly ongoing EPS in our long history, demonstrating our ability to overcome the numerous external challenges we have been facing"
Third-quarter net sales were $5.3 billion, compared to $5.4 billion in the same prior-year period. Excluding the impact of currency, sales increased 1.5%.
Third-quarter earnings before interest and taxes were $275 million, or 5.2% of sales, compared to $310 million, or 5.7% of sales, in the same prior-year period.
Shares leaped $4.52, or 4.3%, to $108.79
