Update Middleby (MIDD)
On November 10 Middleby (MIDD) reported third quarter earnings of 83 cents a share, four cents a share better than Wall Street projections, but still 19% down from the third quarter of 2008. Revenue fell 7.5% from the third quarter of 2008. At $154 million revenue was about $10 million below the Wall Street consensus.
If you used a magnifying glass, you could find signs of improvement in the revenue number. In the second quarter of 2009 revenue was down 8.6% from the second quarter of 2008. In the third quarter of 2009 the year-to-year decline was just 7.2%.
And in the earnings number too. Gross margin climbed to 40.3% in the quarter from 38.9% in the third quarter of 2008.
Update Middleby (MIDD)
On August 12 Middleby (MIDD) reported second quarter earnings of 74 cents a share. That was 7 cents a share below Wall Street expectations. Revenue also came in light at $159 million versus the $170 million Wall Street had projected.
Middleby has attempted to keep growing its business by acquiring smaller competitors and targeting potential top tier customers with a new sales team.
That strategy is sound in the long run the company operates in a fragmented industry and many of its competitors in the commercial kitchen equipment/cooking unit business are currently stressed by a combination of tighter lending standards and slower business.
But that long term strategy has short-term costs because the company has to keep on spending even its own revenue comes under pressure in the recession.
