Analyst Downgrades Whirlpool After '09 Guidance

Whirlpool's share price has more than doubled since early March.

The maker of Maytag and KitchenAid appliances and the company's namesake brand said profit fell to $68 million, or 91 cents per share, from $94 million, or $1.22 per share, a year earlier.

Sales dropped 23 percent to $3.57 billion from $4.6 billion a year earlier in part because its products were more expensive to overseas customers as a result of the stronger dollar.

Darkatsh said the results, "while admittedly only one quarter, showed solid performance in a very challenging period of brutal demand, retail inventory rationalization, production cuts, a strong dollar, and year-over-year raw-material inflation."

Many of the factors should moderate the year progresses, at least giving credence to the existing and reiterated $3.00-4.00 EPS guidance, he said.

Whirlpool's shares fell $1.97, or 4.5 percent, to $41.72 in afternoon trading.