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Shares of Whirlpool Corp. rose more than 3% in the extended session Wednesday after the appliances maker reported adjusted quarterly profit and sales above Wall Street views and said demand for its products in North America is outstripping capacity.
Whirlpool WHR, -1.55% said it earned $397 million, or $6.27 a share, in the third quarter, compared with $5.57 a share in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $6.91 a share.
Sales rose 4% to $5.29 billion.
Analysts polled by FactSet had expected adjusted profit of $4.20 a share on sales of $4.7 billion.
The company reinstated its EPS guidance for the year, forecasting 2020 GAAP EPS between $14.90 and $15.40 and adjusted EPS between $17.50 and $18 for the year.
Whirlpool said it had a $3.5 billion cash balance as of Sept. 30 as well as about $2.5 billion available in credit facilities. It plans to repay about $1.7 billion in short-term debt by the end of the fiscal year, including all its pandemic-related short-term borrowings.
“Our liquidity position remains exceptionally strong, and we expect to continue to strengthen our balance sheet by paying down the short-term debt we took on at the outset of the pandemic,” Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters said.
In North America, the company experienced “revenue softness” due to supply constraints related to the pandemic, “while order backlog remains elevated” in the region, it said.
