Whirlpool profit higher than expected (NYSE:WHR)

Whirlpool Corporation (NYSE:WHR) reported a higher than expected quarterly profit as cost cuts offset weak sales. The world’s biggest appliance maker raised its full year forecast. The news about more profits had a direct impact on the share prices of Whirlpool as they went up around 2.38 percent on Friday morning when the trading began. Whirlpool Corporation is a leader of the US$100 billion global home appliance industry. Currently, the company manufactures appliances across all the major categories like fabric care, refrigeration, cooking, dishwashers, garage organization and water filtration. The company makes some of the world’s leading brands like Maytag, KitchenAid and Whirlpool.

Earlier, Whirlpool Corporation reported earnings of US$87 million down from US$163 million which means that the company had to bear the loss of $1.15 a share. Sales figures of Whirlpool fell down nine percent in the North America and seventeen percent in Europe. However, Whirlpool was able to perform well in Asia and the sales figures saw a rise of eighteen percent in Asian countries. The overall revenue of the company went down around eight percent and came to US$4.5 billion. However, many analysts believed that the company would soon jump up to normal.

Surprisingly, the profit earnings of Whirlpool Corporation clearly surpassed the expectation of analysts and investors as they were expecting of 77 cents per share considering the fact that sales at appliance makers like Electrolux and Whirlpool were suffering due to the global economic slowdown as consumers decided not to purchase any luxury items when they were running short of money. Additionally, these goods are considered as appliances that can help us make our jobs easier but they are not essential goods that people will buy when there was financial crisis. Whirlpool had resorted to aggressive cost-cutting until the demand picked up again.