Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc., (GMCR: News ), Thursday reported a rise in profit for the fourth quarter, as sales grew 73% driven primarily by higher K-Cup portion pack net sales. Both quarterly earnings and revenues came in ahead of analysts' estimates. Looking ahead, the company provided its earnings outlook for the first quarter, which is expected to fall short of estimates. Following the news, the company shares plunged more than 12% in after-hours trade.
The Waterbury, Vermont-based specialty coffee maker's net income for the fourth quarter increased to $26.99 million or $0.20 per share from $14.05 million or $0.11 per share in the previous year.
After adjusting for acquisition-related expenses of $4.96 million, net income for the quarter was $29.81 million or $0.22 per share. On average, nine analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.20 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net sales for the quarter increased 73% to $373.09 million from $215.96 million last year. Analysts estimated revenues of $359.18 million for the quarter.
About 90% of consolidated net sales in the fourth quarter were from the Keurig brewing system and its recurring K-Cup portion pack revenue, including Keurig-related accessory sales and royalties from third party licensed roasters.
Net sales from K-Cup portion packs totaled $249.5 million for the quarter, up 115% over 2009. During the quarter, 832 million K-Cup portion packs were shipped system-wide by all Keurig-licensed roasters, representing an increase of 80% over the year-ago quarter.
Net sales from Keurig brewers and accessories totaled $82.2 million in the quarter, up 48% from the prior-year period. Net sales related to Timothy's and Diedrich, which are included in the company's fourth quarter results of fiscal year 2010 since acquisition in November 2009 and May 2010, respectively, represented approximately 16 percentage points of the 73%.
For the Keurig business unit, net sales for the quarter were $189.6 million, up 64% from a year ago. For the SCBU, net sales were $183.5 million, up 83% year-over-year.
"We estimate Keurig systems are currently active in approximately 6% of the 90 million coffee-drinking households in the United States, and we believe there is room to expand our presence going forward," said Lawrence Blanford, GMCR's president and CEO.
For the first quarter, the company expects non-GAAP earnings in the range of $0.14 to $0.18 per share and anticipates total consolidated net sales growth of 55% to 65%. Analysts currently expect earnings of $0.20 per share for the first quarter.
0 comments:
Post a Comment