Newell Rubbermaid Trims View

Newell Rubbermaid

(NWL) - Get Report

shares lost more than 6% after it lowered its already tepid sales outlook.

The Atlanta-based company, which makes products under its eponymous brand and Rolodex office supplies, now expects that fourth-quarter sales will be about flat with last year's $1.64 billion. Newell Rubbermaid primarily pointed to a broad slowdown in North American office-products retail.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial are seeking revenue of $1.68 billion in the current quarter. Just last month, Newell Rubbermaid had projected a 2% top-line rise, which would have also come in under estimates.

Sales at the company's office-products segment are now pegged to slide somewhere in the high single digits, worse than the low-single-digit retreat that was previously predicted.

Full-year revenue growth targets were, accordingly, shaved down by at least a half-percentage point to between 3% and 3.5%, year over year. That would edge the figure down to some $6.39 billion to $6.42 billion -- just under analyst calls for $6.44 billion.

Nevertheless, the quarter's bottom-line guidance remains steady at 44 cents to 46 cents a share on the "normalized" basis used by analysts. The low end of that range dips under the Wall Street consensus which, on average, comes to 46 cents.

Full-year earnings projections likewise remain unchanged at $1.79 to $1.81 a share.

Newell Rubbermaid shares were recently falling $1.84 to $26.86.