Paints and coatings maker Valspar Corp. (VAL), Tuesday reported a slight decline in profit for the first quarter, as revenues dropped due to weaker-than-anticipated international markets. Both earnings and revenues for the quarter fell short of analysts' estimates.
Moving ahead, the company trimmed its full-year earnings expectations, anticipating weak demand in certain international markets to continue. Valspar shares are currently down near nine percent on the New York Stock Exchange.
Chief Executive Gary Hendrickson said, "Although we made substantial progress this quarter on a number of key initiatives, international markets were weaker than anticipated."
The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company's first-quarter profit inched down to $55.02 million from $55.78 million last year. On a per share basis, earnings improved to $0.60 from $0.58 last year, on lower number of shares outstanding for the quarter.
Last year, the company recorded a one-time restructuring charge of $0.04 per share. The absence of any charges in the latest first-quarter partially helped the company's bottom line.
On average, 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.67 per share for the quarter. Analysts' expectations typically exclude one-time items.
First-quarter revenues dropped to $875.2 million from $885.6 million last year. Analysts estimated revenues of $922.05 million for the quarter.
On a reported basis, gross margin advanced to 33.6 percent from 33.1 percent last year.
Looking forward to full-year 2013, Valspar now expect earnings of $3.60 to $3.80 per share, down from previous estimate of $3.65 and $3.85 per share. The Street currently expect earnings of $3.79 per share for the year.
VAL is currently trading at $61.00, down $5.93 or 8.86%, on a volume of 1.3 million, which is above the three-month average.
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