Helen of Troy (NASDAQ: HELE)
Shares of Helen of Troy Ltd. gapped up $14.85, or 14.57% to $116.80 in the morning trading session as it reported first quarter earnings that topped Wall Street estimates.
The quarterly results of the houseware and supplements company, were for the three months ended May 31, 2018.
Investors also appear to have been excited by the company’s decision to raise its full-year earnings per share guidance.
HELE Earnings & Outlook
The company posted earnings per share of $1.87, beating analyst consensus of $1.46.
Revenue for the quarter slipped by 1% from the year-ago period to $354.7 million, but managed to surpass expectations of $333.75 million. Online net sales jumped by 30%, while consolidated sales went up 9%.
Looking ahead, Helen of Troy expects full-year earnings to be in the range of $7.45 to $7.70 a share, from its earlier guidance of $7.30 to $7.55 a share.
Helen of Troy CEO Comments
Chief Executive Officer Julien R. Mininberg, said, “We continue to see excellent momentum in the business, which led to a strong performance and a great start to our new fiscal year. 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%. Investing in our Leadership Brands, our infrastructure and our people continues to pay off.”
Mininberg continued, “We were particularly pleased to see healthy customer replenishment following the strong sell-through of our products in the prior quarter. This in turn helped maintain healthy inventory levels in our operation and at retail. The sweeter mix of our Leadership Brands, the timing of marketing spend, and further efficiencies generated from our shared services initiatives contributed to higher adjusted operating margins in all three of our business segments.”
Helen of Troy Company Profile
Helen of Troy engages in the design, development, importation, marketing, and distribution of various consumer products globally. The company operates under three segments namely; Beauty, Health & Home, and Housewares.
The Beauty category offers facial, skin care, and hair appliances, as well as decorative hair accessories, grooming tools, brushes; and liquid hair styling, conditioning and treatment products, deodorants, shampoos, antiperspirants and fragrances.
The Health & Home division offers humidifiers, thermometers, air purifiers, dehumidifiers, blood pressure monitors, fans, heaters, pitcher-based water filtration systems, and faucet mount water filtration systems.
The Housewares segment provides beverage and food preparation tools, organization products, storage containers, washroom accessories, household cleaning products, child seating products, gardening products, and nursery accessories.
This segment also offers drinking and feeding products, travel mugs, insulated food containers, water bottles, jugs, and drinkware.
Helen of Troy sells its products via warehouse clubs, mass merchandisers, home improvement stores, drugstore chains, online retailers, specialty and grocery stores, catalogs, wholesalers, beauty supply retailers, and other types of distributors.
It also makes direct-to-customer sales under brands such as the Good Grips, OXO, Braun, Honeywell, Hydro Flask, Hot Tools, Vicks, Soft Works, and Infusium23.
The company was founded in 1968 by Stanlee N. Rubin and Gerald J. Rubin. Its headquarters are located in El Paso, Texas. –Reuters
