Brown-Forman beats by $0.04, misses on revs; guides FY15 EPS in-line, revs above consensus
Reports Q4 (Apr) earnings of $0.62 per share, $0.04 better than the Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.58; revenues rose 3.1% year/year to $893 mln vs the $921.71 mln consensus.
- Co issues guidance for FY15, sees EPS of $3.25-3.45 vs. $3.30 Capital IQ Consensus Estimate; sees FY15 revs of +6-8% calc to ~$4.18-4.26 bln vs. $3.82 bln Capital IQ Consensus Estimate.
- Guidance:The company anticipates that the favorable dynamics experienced over the last three years, including premiumization trends and strong global demand for American whiskey brands, will continue into fiscal 2015, despite continued uncertainty in the global macroeconomic environment, including weak on-premise trends in the United States and a slight slowdown in some of the emerging markets. Accordingly, the company expects 6-8% growth in reported and underlying net sales, driven by the continued global expansion of the Jack Daniel's trademark, including both Tennessee Whiskey and Tennessee Honey. The company also expects other brands such as Woodford Reserve, Herradura, and Finlandia to help drive sales growth.
- The company expects to continue investing in its long-term growth, driven by A&P increases slightly ahead of net sales growth and SG&A increases slightly below net sales growth in fiscal 2015. The company believes that this would result in another year of operating margin expansion and 9-11% growth in reported and underlying operating income. This full year outlook includes a negligible impact from foreign exchange. The company also expects first quarter results to be negatively impacted by comparisons with the large buy-ins in advance of price increases that occurred over the last two years, primarily in the United States, but this impact should reverse over the balance of fiscal 2015.