Boston, MA 09/03/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Designer and distributor of branded consumer products, Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) Chief Executive Officer, Julien Mininberg, had blamed the recent weakness witnessed in the retail environment for cutting down its forecast for the fiscal year 2015. The slower store traffic apart from softer mass market retail sales has also compounded its woes.
CEO Comments
Mininberg said that its personal care division witnessed the multi-year downside trend and that it had accelerated recently, especially in its appliance and commoditized parts of the business, the company said in a statement. Additionally, some of its biggest retail customers have resorted to softer purchase only, and slower traffic in the store had only created further problems in managing the sales.
As a result, the CEO said that Helen Of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) had no option but to reduce its forecast for the fiscal year 2015 that ends in February. However, he said that though the retailer was taking enough steps to improve the performance of its personal care segment, Mininberg expects that it would take some more time to have a meaningful impact.
Outlook Reduced
Therefore, Helen of Troy had slashed its adjusted earnings forecast to $3.70 – $3.80 a share for the fiscal year 2015 from $4.30 – $4.40 a share predicted earlier. Including Healthy Directors, it predicts earnings of $3.90 – $4.04 a share. This fell short of the Wall Street analysts’ estimations of $4.33 a share.
Helen Of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) expects to generate sales of $1.28 – $1.3 billion, excluding its recent acquisition, for the same period. However, including Healthy Directors contributions, it projects sales of $1.375 – $1.405 billion. On average, Street analysts’ expect the company to deliver revenue of $1.39 billion.
2Q Guidance
Helen of Troy also expects adjusted earnings to be 58 – 61 cents a share on revenues of $291 – $294 million for the second quarter while estimating consolidated earnings of 64 – 69 cents a share. The projections fell short of the Street analysts’ expectations of 85 cents a share on revenues of $317.55 million.
Helen Of Troy Limited (NASDAQ:HELE) indicated that it would announce its complete results of its second quarter during the week commencing October 6.
