WHR Whirlpool Corp

Whirlpool Corp., the world's largest home-appliance manufacturer by sales, beat earnings expectations in its latest quarter, thanks to cost cuts and acquisitions that drove European and Asian sales.

The company reported a profit of $235 million, or $2.95 a share, up from year-earlier earnings of $230 million, or $2.88 a share. Whirlpool said earnings from ongoing operations rose to $3.45 a share, well above the $3.29 analysts predicted.

Revenue, hurt by unfavorable foreign exchange rates, rose 9.4% to $5.28 billion, short of the $5.41 billion analyst estimate. Stripping out currency fluctuations, sales jumped about 25%.

A near doubling of revenue in Whirlpool's Europe, Middle East and Africa and a more-than-twofold increase in Asia sales offset weakness in Latin America and lackluster North American sales. Performance in those segments were driven by last year's acquisitions of Indesit Co., an Italian company that sells appliances under its name and the Hotpoint and Scholtes brands, and 51% of Hefei Rongshida Sanyo Electric Co. of China.

Benefits from acquisition integration activities, cost and capacity-reduction initiatives and a more favorable price mix more than offset the impact from currency moves and waning emerging market demand, said Chief Executive Jeff Fettig.

The Benton Harbor, Mich.-based company has been hamstrung by a stronger U.S. dollar, which makes its appliances more expensive abroad, and by dropping demand in emerging markets. Brazil has been a particularly sore spot for Whirlpool, where it does a chunk of its business and where the economic downturn is the deepest since the financial crisis.

In Latin America, third-quarter sales slid 27% to $800 million, thanks to currencies and weaker demand in Brazil. Sales in North America were flat in the quarter at $2.8 billion.

Because of continued weakness in Latin America, Whirlpool pulled in the low-end of its full-year guidance range. The company expects to earn $12 to $12.50 a share this year, versus an earlier range of $12 to $13. Brazil is expected to knock 50 cents off of per-share earnings this year, the company said.

Shares in the company, down about 18% this year, were inactive premarket.

Write to Lisa Beilfuss at lisa.beilfuss@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 23, 2015 07:25 ET (11:25 GMT)

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