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Tupperware Shares Climb After Results

The Associated Press

CHICAGO (AP) — Shares of Tupperware Brands Corp. climbed Wednesday, a day after the household products maker posted a better-than-expected first-quarter profit and forecast second-quarter and full-year results above Wall Street estimates.

Shares of the Orlando, Fla.-based company rose $3.39, or 15.9 percent, to $24.75 in midday trading Wednesday, after climbing as high as $26.38 earlier in the session.

Tupperware, which makes beauty products as well as its namesake food storage containers, reported Tuesday that it earned $25.6 million, or 41 cents per share, during the three months that ended March 28.

That's 20 percent lower than the previous year's results of $32.1 million, or 51 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, the company earned 47 cents per share — beating the 34 cents per share that analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected.

Sales declined to $462.8 million from $543.4 million.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Douglas M. Lane said the company's sales were in line with his forecasts.

"Tupperware, particularly in emerging markets, more than offset beauty, which continues to struggle," he told investors in a research note published Wednesday.

The company said its European sales dropped 18 percent and its sales of beauty products in North America sank 24 percent. But it blamed much of the drop in its overseas sales on foreign currency fluctuations, noting that sales rose 1 percent when measured in local currencies.

Tupperware also said it expected to earn between cents to 62 cents per share for the second quarter, with sales in dollars expected to decrease by 12 percent to 14 percent.

For fiscal 2009, the company predicted earnings of $2.16 to $2.26 per share, with sales down 8 percent to 11 percent year over year due to the stronger dollar's negative effect on revenue from overseas sales.