Shares of Helen of Troy Ltd. (NASDAQ:HELE) soared Monday after the El Paso consumer products giant posted strong fiscal first quarter earnings that topped Wall Street expectations.
The maker of Hot Tools hair stylers and Dr. Scholl’s reported earnings of US$1.74 per share on revenue of US$354.7mln. It handily beat consensus earnings estimate of US$1.43 per share on revenue of US$333.3mln.
Helen of Troy stock was up nearly 12% to US$115.
“We continue to see excellent momentum in the business, which led to a strong performance and a great start to our new fiscal year,” said Helen of Troy CEO Julien R. Mininberg. “Our strategic choices and ongoing productivity enhancements from the transformation plan are generating healthy results, with consolidated net sales increasing 9.0% and adjusted diluted EPS from continuing operations growing 32.6%.”
Hikes guidance
The Texas-based company hiked its outlook for the year ending in February saying it now expects fiscal 2019 earnings of US$7.45 to US$7.70 per share on revenue of $1.49bn to US$1.51bn. The company's previous guidance was earnings of US$7.30 to US$7.55 per share.
The current consensus earnings estimate is US$7.42 per share on revenue of US$1.49bn for the year ending in February.
In a sign of things to come, online channel net sales grew by approximately 30.3% for Helen of Troy’s large portfolio of houseware, health, home and beauty products.
Helen of Troy repurchased 407,025 of its own shares in the open market during the quarter for US$37.1mln.
Contact Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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