Newell Rubbermaid swings to profit in first quarter

<p>Newell Rubbermaid Inc., the maker of Sharpie pens and Rubbermaid trash cans, said it swung to a profit in the first quarter despite a 6.5 percent drop in sales and high raw materials costs.</p><p>The results, announced before the market opened Thursday, beat Wall Street expectations. However, Newell Rubbermaid shares slipped 19 cents to $21.24 in Thursday trading on the New York Stock Exchange. They have traded in a 52-week range of $19.05 to $25.03.</p><p>The Atlanta-based consumer products manufacturer said it earned $36.6 million, or 13 cents a share, for the three months ending March 31, compared to a loss of $74.9 million, or 27 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.</p><p>Excluding charges related to discontinued operations, Newell Rubbermaid said it earned $86.9 million, or 32 cents a share. On that basis, analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of 26 cents a share.</p><p>Revenue in the January-March period fell to $1.39 billion, compared to $1.49 billion recorded a year ago.</p><p>"Our continued success this quarter in maintaining pricing discipline and achieving productivity gains enabled us to manage through record raw-material inflation to deliver on our earnings commitment," chief executive Joe Galli said.</p><p>Looking ahead, the company said it expects earnings per share from continuing operations for all of 2005 to be in the range of $1.38 a share to $1.48 a share. However, the company said that because of its decision to exit low-margin product lines and the volume impact related to its pricing strategy, it expects internal sales to decline 1 percent to 3 percent for all of 2005.</p><p>The guidance does not include total non-cash and operating losses now expected to be in the range of $60 million to $80 million for the full year.</p><p>Newell Rubbermaid said that for the second quarter, it expects internal sales to decline in the range of 1 percent to 3 percent and earnings per share from continuing operations to be in the range of 28 cents to 32 cents. Analysts were expecting earnings of 36 cents a share in the second quarter.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc270)</p>

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