Dallas, Texas 07/22/2013 (Financialstrend) – Whirlpool Corporation (NASDAQ:WHR), worlds leading home appliance manufacturer and marketer, showed tremendous growth on its stock this Friday on release of the second quarter earnings. The stock closed at $128.91 on July 19, 2013, gaining $9.54 from the previous day. The stock is now pretty close to the 52 weeks high of $134.09. The positive earnings release also affected the trading volume which was 2581442 on Friday compared to 90 day average volume of 1028256.
The released earnings smoothly surpassed the estimates of the markets. The earnings per share growth on year on year basis for Whirlpool were 37.53%, for 2013 while the industry showed 20.60%. On business booming, Whirlpool expects its EPS to be $10 from the ongoing business this year.
Whirlpool upgraded its plants in America using hundreds of millions of dollars, adding hundreds of job. The huge spending didn’t affect the profits of the company as the jump in sales compensated for the expenditure. The rise in sales is due to the rise in consumer income and revival in U.S housing markets, thus adding to higher disposable income. Company CEO Jeff Fettig revealed that the sales was higher in not only American region, but throughout its operational area globally. Sales were up 5% in North America, 6% in Africa, Europe and Middle East and 4% in Asia. The sales surpassed the expected results of $4.67 billion to reach $4.7 billion, higher than $4.5 billion last year.
Jeff also stated that, viewing the current earnings and expected growth, the company is resuming with share repurchase program. The strategy is to long term growth to further create shareholders value. Free flow cash generation is expected to rise from $600 million to $700 million.
Keeping a view on future growth strengths the analyst kept buy recommendations for the stock.
