While Whirlpool Corporation’s quarterly earnings report isn’t due out until next week, The Wall Street Journal is calling into question the company’s unbridled joy from earlier this year when CEO Marc Bitzer called newly announced (at that time) tariffs on imported washing machines, “without any doubt, a positive catalyst,” in light of the fact that, as an article posted today says, “Nearly six months later, the company’s share price is down 15-percent.”
Authors Andrew Tangel and Josh Zumbrun have pieced together a fairly comprehensive report in today’s WSJ titled, “Whirlpool Wanted Washer Tariffs. It Wasn’t Ready for a Trade Showdown.”
Whirlpool Corporate executives are all currently in a pre-earnings “blackout” period during which they are required to remain silent on any questions regarding performance levels, financial statements, projections or anything else that could materially effect the stock price one way or another.
The report from Wall Street says, “Whirlpool had campaigned for protection from what it called unfair foreign competition. Things became more complicated as the trade conflict spread beyond its industry.”
Tangel and Zumbrun go into detail regarding the response to the tariffs from Samsung and Electrolux wherein one executive contends that Americans “have paid more for their washing machines across all brands.”
Whirlpool officials have cited rising raw materials costs in recent earnings reports as adversely impacting the company’s financial performance.
Another subsection of today’s article cites the reactions from retailers selling major appliances and the impacts of higher prices, as well as quoting industry statistics for washing machine shipments (from all sources) to U.S. dealers which in May produced “the steepest monthly decline since March 2012,” according to one trade group. The report even cites vendor reactions to those providing services to the Benton Harbor-based appliance giant.
It’s not all gloomy news, however, as the Mayor of Clyde, Ohio tells the writers that his recent tour of the massive Whirlpool plant there showed a great deal of construction, including new labs and training facilities and new equipment being added for a new line of washers.
Whirlpool’s corporate earnings report is due out at the close of business one week from today on Monday, July 23rd. Zack’s Equity Research says in the last reported quarter, the company reported a negative earnings surprise of 3.8-percent, and adds, “Further, Whirlpool missed estimates in three of the last four quarters, with an average negative earnings surprise of 2.6-percent.”
