Sotheby's Q3 Loss Narrows, But Misses View

(RTTNews) - Auction house Sotheby's (BID) reported Monday a net loss for the third quarter that narrowed from last year, despite lower revenues, reflecting cost cutting and a higher income tax benefit.

The quarterly loss per share came in wider than analysts' expectations, but revenues topped estimates.

The company noted that the third quarter is always a slow quarter at Sotheby's due to the seasonality of the global art auction business.

In the first auction of the fall season last week, Sotheby's raised a record-breaking $470 million through Impressionist & Modern art sale, making it the highest total for any auction in the company's history. . "Sotheby's has achieved substantial and broad-based successes across our global salesrooms through the third quarter, with double-digit growth in auction sales in virtually all our categories - including Impressionist & Modern, Contemporary, Asian Art, Jewelry, Old Masters, Photographs and Prints, 20th Century Design and Wine," Chairman, President and CEO Bill Ruprecht said in a statement.

New York-based Sotheby's reported a net loss of $27.73 million or $0.40 per share for the third quarter, narrower than $30.13 million or $0.44 per share in the prior-year quarter.

On average, five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report a loss of $0.38 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Total revenues for the quarter decreased to $94.20 million from $107.86 million in the same quarter last year, but topped five Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $91.28 million.

Agency revenues edged down to $76.23 million from $76.93 million, and principal revenues plunged to $6.27 million from $23.49 million last year.

Operating loss for the quarter widened to $37.47 million from $34.36 million in the prior-year quarter, but total expenses declined to $131.67 million from $142.23 million a year ago.

Income tax benefit for the quarter grew to $16.17 million from $11.70 million a year ago.

On Thursday, the company's board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.10 for the fourth quarter, payable on December 15 to shareholders of record as of December 1, 2014.

The company said it is looking ahead to the first in a series of important sales from the Estate of Mrs. Paul Mellon starting this evening of more than 2,000 individual items together have an estimated value in excess of $100 million.

Later in the week, it looks ahead to its contemporary art sales, which include a number of important works by Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Gerard Richter and Jasper Johns, together having an estimated value between $382 and $535 million.

BID closed Friday's regular trading session at $39.44, up $0.34 on a volume of 0.85 million shares. In the past 52-week period, the stock has been trading in a range of $34.74 to $54.00.