Herbalife's Stock Jumps After Profit Beat, Raised Outlook

Herbalife Ltd.'s stock jumped 5.1% in after-hours trade Wednesday, after the nutritional and weight-management products company reported a second-quarter profit that beat expectations and raised its full-year outlook. For the quarter ending June 30, net earnings fell to $82.8 million, or 97 cents a share, from $119.5 million, or $1.31 a share, in the same period a year ago. Excluding non-recurring items, such as expenses incurred in response to attacks on its business model and expenses related to regulatory inquiries, adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.24, above the FactSet consensus of $1.11. Revenue fell 11% to $1.16 billion, but were just above the FactSet consensus of $1.15 billion. Excluding the negative effects of currency movements, revenue would have increased 1%. The company raised its full-year adjusted EPS outlook to a range of $4.50 to $4.70 from $4.30 to $4.60. "The second quarter continued the improving trends we saw in the previous quarter in terms of sales volumes and key sales leader metrics, and we believe we will see these positive trends continue through the second half of the year," said Chief Executive Michael Johnson. The attacks on its business model refers to billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman's public bet against the stock.