Briggs & Stratton Shares Slip On Q4 Results, Revised Outlook - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Briggs & Stratton Corp. (BGG) said its fourth quarter capped a difficult year of unprecedented market challenges and higher than expected operational inefficiencies encountered during the ramp-up of business optimization initiatives. The company reduced its fiscal 2020 sales, and adjusted earnings outlook. Also, Briggs & Stratton announced a reduced quarterly dividend in order to direct more funds to debt reduction and investments. Shares of the company were down more than 45% in pre-market trade on Thursday.

For the fourth-quarter, adjusted net loss was $0.36 per share compared to adjusted net income of $0.47 per share, a year ago. On average, four analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $0.45, for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Fourth-quarter net sales were $472 million, a decrease of 5.9% from $502 million, prior year. Adjusting for items, net sales decreased approximately 2%. Analysts expected revenue of $519.87 million for the quarter.

For fiscal 2020, the company now expects adjusted net income per share in a range of $0.20 to $0.40, revised from the prior, preliminary estimate of approximately $1.30 per share. Net sales are anticipated to be within a range of $1.91 billion to $1.97 billion. The previous preliminary expectation was approximately $2.01 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report profit per share of $1.22 on revenue of $2 billion.

The Board of Briggs & Stratton declared a quarterly dividend of $0.05 per share. The dividend is payable October 2, 2019, to shareholders of record at the close of business September 18, 2019. The dividend is a reduction from the previous level of $0.14 per share.