Palm with a 1/4 BILLION Revenue miss..."the econ is fine" LOL
Maytag Issues 1Q Earnings Warning
.c The Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP)- Maytag Corp., citing pricing pressures and weak sales, warned Tuesday that it will be ``a challenge'' to post first-quarter earnings that match Wall Street expectations.
Analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial expect profits for the quarter to be 45 cents per share.
The nation's no. 3 appliance maker did not give specific guidance, but said that excluding a one-time tax gain, it expects to exceed the 40 cents per share it posted in the fourth quarter of 2000.
``While there is weakness in industry sales of major appliances continuing from late last year, Maytag is seeing somewhat stronger than industry sales and share gains in some product categories,'' Leonard A. Hadley, chief executive officer, said in a news release.
``That strength is offset by severe pricing pressures and additional investments we are making in advertising, merchandising, and product development.''
The company's sales have also been hurt by a shift in the floor care industry to more volume at lower price points for upright vacuums, he said.
Hadley added, ``We expect to deliver quarter-to-quarter EPS improvement in 2001, although the favorable slope of the trend line may not as steep as we had envisioned originally |
