(By Balaseshan) Briggs & Stratton Corp. (NYSE: BGG), a producer of gasoline engines, slipped to a quarterly loss due to restructuring charges and lower sales across its segments. However, earnings topped Street's expectations, sending its shares up to a yearly high.
Loss for the second quarter was $635,000 or $0.02 per share, compared to a profit of $49.81 million or $0.05 per share last year. The latest quarter results included restructuring charges of $4.3 million after-tax.
Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) rose to $0.07 from $0.05. Net sales declined 2% to $439.07 million.
Analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a profit of $0.02 per share on revenue of $447.93 million for the second quarter.
Sales from engines declined 4.2% to $274.2 million, driven by reduced shipments of engines used on snow thrower equipment in the North American market and walk mowers in the Australian market.
Products sales fell 8.3% to $197.5 million, primarily due to reduced sales of snow thrower equipment and related service parts on unusually dry conditions in the North American and Australian markets as well as lower sales of lawn and garden equipment.
Looking ahead into fiscal 2013, the company still projects earnings of $60 million to $75 million or $1.25 to $1.55 per share prior to the impact of any additional share repurchases and costs related to our announced restructuring programs.
Consolidated net sales for fiscal 2013 are projected to be in a range of $1.95 billion to $2.15 billion. Street analysts predict a profit of $1.66 per share on revenue of $2.07 billion for the full year.
The total estimated pre-tax expense related to restructuring actions in fiscal 2013 is expected to be $12 million to $22 million. In addition, the company continues to anticipate pre-tax savings associated with restructuring actions of $30 million to $35 million in fiscal 2013 and $40 million to $45 million in fiscal 2014.
BGG is trading up 6.71% at $22.27 on Thursday. The stock has been trading between $15.12 and $22.27 for the past 52 weeks.