Whirlpool Announces Earnings

Whirlpool reported earnings Friday. Here are the highlights:

• Sales for the second fiscal quarter of 2013 grew more than 4% to $4.7 billion.
• Operating profit margins climbed roughly two full percentage points, to 7%.
• Profits rose more than 70% to $2.44 per share.

Just how good was this news? "Sales increased in every region of the world as we continued to expand margins." That assertion from CEO Jeff Fettig pretty much sums up how great things are going for Whirlpool right now. So this story is bigger than just the reviving U.S. housing market, and a few more thousand homeowners buying washers and dryers to outfit their new digs. Demand for Whirlpool products is increasing across the board, and around the globe:

• North America -- sales up 5%, with profits growing twice as fast.
• Europe, the Middle East, and Africa -- sales up 6%, with losses shrinking.
• Latin America -- sales up 6%, and profitable.
• Asia -- sales up 4%, albeit less profitably.

The valuation
And it gets better. With business booming, Whirlpool now predicts it will earn as much as $10 per share on profits from ongoing business operations this year. GAAP: $10.05 to $10.55 per share. At the upper end, therefore, this stock could be trading for as little as 12.2 times Whirlpool earnings for this year.
Free cash flow is growing, too. Viewed under the harshest possible light, I see $386 million in FCF for the past 12 months. So even with free cash flow continuing to lag reported earnings, that means the stock costs about 26.5 times trailing FCF. That's not at all unreasonable for a stock projected to grow earnings at 26% annually over the next five years.
Long story short, after seeing Whirlpool's earnings report, I'd say the stock is looking pretty cheap today. At worst, focusing on FCF rather than GAAP earnings, it still looks fairly valued.
Yes, even though Whirlpool is building things in America again. Imagine that.

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