Herbalife’s Quarterly Profit Grows 46 Percent

184

Herbalife Ltd. showed strong earnings growth in the fourth quarter and full year, boosted by double-digit sales volume gains for its nutritional products in Mexico, China and the Asia Pacific.

After the Tuesday markets closed, the Los Angeles weight loss and supplement maker reported net income of $81 million ($1.31 per share), compared with $55.6 million (88 cents) a year earlier.

Worldwide net sales rose 17 percent to more than $738 million, with sales volume up 29 percent in China, 26 percent in Mexico and more 23 percent in Asia Pacific. The more mature North America market rose 8 percent.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on average expected the company to report per-share profit of $1.12 on revenue of more than $721 million.

For the full year, Herbalife’s adjusted net income rose 43 percent to $297 million on net sales growth of 18 percent to $2.7 billion.

“The continued broad-based growth we are experiencing further confirms the strength of the business methods our distributors are using,” said Chief Executive Michael O. Johnson in a statement.

In guidance for the first quarter, Herbalife expects per-share profit in the range of $1.17 to $1.21, and sales growth of 18 percent to 20 percent. For the full year, the company expects per-share profit of $5.15 to $5.40 on net sales growth of 13 percent to 15 percent. That’s up from earlier guidance of $5 to $5.25 per share on a sales growth of 11 percent to 13 percent.

The Wall Street consensus is for per-share profit of $1.11 for the current quarter and $5.28 for the year.

The company also announced that its board approved a two-for-one split of common shares to improve liquidity, subject to shareholder approval. The board also approved a per share dividend of 25 cents to shareholders of record as of March 8.

Shares, which earlier closed up less than 1 percent to $69.85 on the New York Stock Exchange, rose 5 percent in after-hours trading.