Brunswick, the boatmaker, has reported lower fourth-quarter sales, which have been negatively impacted by cautious dealerships that are reducing their orders. The company’s fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations reached $71 million, or $1.03 a share, down from $140.3 million, or $1.93 a share, during the same period in the previous year.
After removing one-time items like restructuring costs, adjusted earnings amounted to $1.45 a share. Despite this, analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected adjusted earnings of $1.65 a share.
Sales also took a hit, declining by 14% to $1.36 billion, falling short of analysts’ expectations of $1.44 billion.
David Foulkes, the Chief Executive of Brunswick, highlighted that the company’s sales had performed better than the broader boat market in 2023.
Looking ahead to 2024, Brunswick has set a sales target of $6 billion to $6.2 billion, which is lower than the anticipated $6.33 billion by analysts and the $6.4 billion reported by Brunswick in 2023.
Moreover, the company expects adjusted earnings for the full year to range between $7 a share and $8 a share, which falls short of analysts’ expectations of $8.62 a share.
In terms of the first quarter of 2024, Brunswick is aiming for adjusted earnings of $1.30 a share to $1.40 a share, alongside sales of $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion. However, both figures fall below analysts’ projections.