FAIRHAVEN – The Acushnet Co.’s parent company on Friday said its third-quarter profit fell by more than half amid a 10 percent decline in sales of golf products.
Fortune Brands Inc. posted a profit of $124.1 million, or 82 cents a share, for the three-month period ended Sept. 30, down from a profit of $335.9 million, or $2.21 a share, in the same period last year. Revenue fell 10 percent to $1.72 billion.
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Excluding charges, Deerfield, Ill.-based Fortune said net income was 77 cents a share. The company also noted that the year-ago results included a large one-time gain from the termination of a joint liquor venture.
The results beat Wall Street’s expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 61 cents a share.
“Despite the challenges of the global economy and the overall U.S. housing market, Fortune Brands continued to deliver results and operating margins at the forefront of our categories,” Bruce Carbonari, Fortune’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “Each of our businesses performed at or above our expectations in the quarter.”
Fortune said sales of Acushnet Co.’s golf products fell 10 percent to $278.6 million compared with a year earlier, partly because of currency changes. The golf division posted an operating profit of $9.7 million, down 60 percent from last year, helped by a new Titleist Pro V1 line of golf balls.
Carbonari said the golf division “outperformed the industry with successful new products and double-digit, constant-currency sales gains in Europe and Korea that partly offset a double-digit decrease in the United States.”
The company raised its 2009 earnings forecast at the low end, predicting a profit of $2.10 to $2.30 a share, up from an earlier forecast of $2 to $2.30 a share.
Additional information is available at acushnetcompany.com.
