Newell Rubbermaid 3Q profit rises to $108.5 million

<p>Newell Rubbermaid Inc., maker of Sharpie pens and Rubbermaid trash cans, on Thursday reported higher third-quarter profit thanks to strong sales.</p><p>The Atlanta-based company said third-quarter profit rose to $108.5 million, or 39 cents a share, from $71.5 million, or 27 cents a share, a year ago.</p><p>Excluding one-time items, the company said it earned $128.4 million, or 46 cents per share, beating the expectations of the analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who predicted earnings of 39 cents a share.</p><p>Revenue rose to nearly $1.6 billion from $1.4 billion a year earlier.</p><p>For the first nine months of the year, Newell Rubbermaid said it earned $282.8 million, or $1.03 a share, compared to a profit of $174.3 billion, or 63 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.</p><p>Nine-month revenue rose about 10 percent to nearly $4.6 billion from $4.1 billion.</p><p>Newell Rubbermaid in recent years has been restructuring its business, discontinuing or selling some operations so it can focus on others.</p><p>It announced in September it was selling its Ohio-based Little Tikes children's toys and furniture business for an expected net gain of $15 million to $25 million in the fourth quarter. And it said it plans to sell part of its Home Decor Europe business.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdb978)</p>