Thor Industries Profit Up, But Misses Estimate - Update

(RTTNews) - Recreational vehicles maker Thor Industries Inc (THO), Thursday reported a higher third-quarter profit as demand improved for its motorized and towable vehicles. However, quarterly earnings missed Wall Street estimates, while revenues were in line with expectations.

"As we emerged from the tough conditions of the past winter, we were able to post improvements in sales and bottom-line results for the third quarter," said CEO Bob Martin in a statement.

Martin said the company is in the process of tackling capacity challenges as it ramps up of its new production facility in Elkhart, which will nonetheless entail some short-term costs and inefficiencies.

The company had earlier warned that its operations in the third quarter would be impacted by factors including the harsh winter weather and a tight labor market in Northern Indiana.

Thor, based in Elkhart, Indiana, posted quarterly earnings of $55 million or $1.03 per share, compared with $43.8 million or $0.82 per share last year.

On average, eight analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $1.07 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

As earlier reported, sales for the quarter climbed to $1.05 billion from $929.8 million in the prior year, in line with analysts' estimates.

Towable RV sales were up 8 percent from a year ago, and motorized RV sales increased 31 percent.

As of April, Thor had a backlog of $820 million, up 26 percent from a year ago.

Thor stock closed Thursday at $61.41, up $0.67 or 1.10%, on a volume of 0.27 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the stock dropped $1.01 or 1.64%, trading at $60.40.