Toro Q2 Earnings Rise, Beats View; Backs FY14 Forecast - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Toro Co. (TTC) Thursday reported higher earnings for the second quarter, reflecting growth in sales. In addition, the company backed its outlook for full year 2014.

For the quarter, Toro's net earnings rose to $87.1 million or $1.51 per share from $78.4 million or $1.32 per share in the year-ago period.On average, five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $1.48 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Quarterly sales were up 5.8 percent to $745 million from $704.5 million last year. Analysts expected revenue of $735.55 million for the quarter.

Commenting on the results, Toro's Chief Executive said: "Although retail sales of some residential products were hampered by the late spring, we experienced strong growth in our landscape maintenance business. Contractors who benefited from the robust snow season last winter invested in more new turf equipment during the quarter, favoring our productivity-enhancing mowers."

Looking ahead, the firm continues to expect full-year net earnings per share in the range of $2.90 to $2.95 on revenue growth of about 5 to 6 percent. Analysts estimate annual earnings of $2.96 per share on revenues of $2.16 billion.

For the third quarter, the company expects net earnings per share to be about $0.82 while analysts see earnings of $0.87 per share.