SodaStream International Lowers 2013 Outlook, Shares Tumble

(RTTNews) - SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA), a maker of home beverage carbonation systems, on Monday lowered its financial outlook for fiscal 2013, citing a challenging holiday selling season in the U.S. and several factors that negatively impacted its gross margin.

The company said it was disappointed with its fourth-quarter performance. Shares of the company are currently down more than 21 percent in the regular trading session.

Daniel Birnbaum, Chief Executive Officer of SodaStream said, "Despite achieving all-time record sales, we failed to deliver our profit targets and are disappointed in our fourth quarter performance. These preliminary results reflect a challenging holiday selling season in the U.S. and several factors, mostly from the second half of the quarter that negatively impacted our gross margin."

According to Birnbaum, the factors that negatively impacted its gross margin include lower sell-in prices and higher product costs, a shift in product mix versus plan, and unfavorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates.

For fiscal 2013, SodaSream now forecasts net income of about $41.5 million, adjusted net income of about $52.5 million, and revenue of about $562.0 million.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $2.57 per share for the year on revenues of $564.32 million. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

While reporting its financial results for the third quarter in October 2013, SodaStream said it expected fiscal 2013 net income to increase about 23 percent over 2012 net income of $43.9 million, and adjusted net income to increase about 30 percent over adjusted net income of $50.0 million reported in 2012. The company expected full year 2013 revenue to increase about 30 percent over 2012 revenue of $436.3 million.

This implied net income for the year of about $54 million, adjusted net income of about $65 million and revenues of about $567.19 million.

Looking ahead, Birnbaum said, "While we expect some of these headwinds to continue into the first half of 2014, we are moving quickly to implement the necessary measures to restore margins to historical levels in the coming year. We remain confident that despite this setback, we will continue to profitably expand our share of the global carbonated beverage category and are on the right path to meet our long-term goals."

Israel-based SodaStream's home beverage carbonation systems enable consumers to easily transform ordinary tap water instantly into carbonated soft drinks and sparkling water.

In Monday's regular session, SODA is trading at $38.99, down $10.90 or 21.85 percent on a volume of 3.46 million shares.