Estee Lauder Sales Beat Expectations, Restructuring Announced

Estee Lauder Companies Inc. shares are up 0.9% in Tuesday premarket trading after the beauty company announced fiscal third-quarter sales that beat expectations and job cuts related to a restructuring initiative. Estee Lauder said it had net income of $265.6 million, or 71 cents per share, down from $272.1 million, or 71 cents per share, a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share totaled 73 cents per share, exceeding the FactSet consensus of 61 cents per share. Sales for the quarter totaled $2.66 billion, up from $2.58 billion for the same period last year and meeting the FactSet consensus. The beauty company said it expects full-year sales to increase between 4% and 5%, with currency exchange expected to impact sales negatively by 5%. Earnings per share are expected to be between $3.00 and $3.07. Estee Lauder's restructuring initiative, called Leading Beauty Forward, will begin fiscal fourth-quarter 2016. It expects job cuts between 900 and 1,200 positions globally and restructuring and other pre-tax charges between $600 million and $700 million. Estee Lauder expects to yield annual pre-tax benefits between $200 million and $300 million. Estee Lauder shares are up 10.3% for the year-to-date while the S&P 500 is up 1.8% for the same period.