Estee Lauder 4th-quarter results mixed as sales improve across categories

Estee Lauder's fourth-quarter profit more than doubled, helped a surge of orders placed earlier than what is typical.

The beauty products company, which also owns the Clinique and Bobbi Brown brands, earned $257.7 million, or 66 cents per share, for the period ended June 30. That compares with $94 million, or 24 cents per share, a year ago.

There was an acceleration of orders by some retailers during the quarter in advance of a new internal system put into place by the company at some locations. Orders that would have traditionally been placed in the first quarter of fiscal 2015, led to an extra 21 cents per share in the fourth quarter.

Removing those early orders, per-share earnings would have been 45 cents, which is a dime short of analyst estimates, according to a poll by FactSet.

Revenue for the New York company rose 13 percent to $2.73 billion from $2.41 billion, beating Wall Street's forecast of $2.66 billion.

Sales improved across categories, which include skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care.

For the year, Estee Lauder Cos. earned $1.2 billion, or $3.06 per share. In the prior year the retailer earned $1.02 billion, or $2.58 per share.

Its adjusted profit was $3.16 per share.

Annual revenue increased to $10.97 billion from $10.18 billion.

Going forward, Estee Lauder anticipates an adjusted profit in a range of 72 cents to 76 cents per share. The company foresees a fiscal 2015 adjusted profit between $3.10 and $3.20 per share.

Analysts expect a first-quarter profit of 72 cents per share and full-year profit of $3.16 per share.

Shares of Estee Lauder gained 60 cents to $76.50 in Friday premarket trading.