Oil-Dri Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2011 Results
(firmenpresse) - CHICAGO, IL -- (Marketwire) -- 10/12/11 -- Oil-Dri Corporation of America (NYSE: ODC) today announced net sales of $226,755,000 for the fiscal year ended July 31, 2011, a 4% increase compared with net sales of $219,050,000 for the previous fiscal year. Net income for the fiscal year was $9,051,000, or $1.26 per diluted share, a 3% decrease compared with net income of $9,458,000 or $1.30 per diluted share for the previous fiscal year.
Net sales for the fourth quarter were $57,731,000, a 6% increase compared with net sales of $54,653,000 in the same quarter one year ago. The Company reported net income for the quarter of $2,895,000, or $0.40 per diluted share, a 21% increase compared with net income of $2,416,000 or $0.33 per diluted share in the same quarter one year ago.
President and Chief Executive Officer Daniel S. Jaffee said, "This year we were able to achieve moderate sales growth and maintain a strong balance sheet while investing heavily in a new product launch and continuing to invest in several key initiatives.
"In the fourth quarter, we introduced Cat's Pride Fresh & Light, a new concept in cat litter. The product capitalizes on our lighter density mineral reserves, and uses a blend of sodium and calcium bentonite covered by both an existing patent and a pending patent application. The marketing investment for Fresh & Light has exceeded any recent Company initiative. You can view our commercials on our Cat's Pride Facebook site: . Commercials will begin airing on cable television this fall and then again in the spring. Initial sales of Fresh & Light were captured in the fourth quarter before our formal advertising campaign was launched.
"During the fiscal year, we continued to optimize the manufacturing process for Verge granules that brought repeat business and increased capacity. Our fluids purification products maintained year over year growth. We added a strategic animal health distributor in Japan and Brazil that will help the company achieve greater coverage in those regions."
Business to Business Products Group
Net sales for the Company's were up 3% for the fiscal year driven by a higher average net selling price, which offset the Group's volume decrease. Group income was down 2% in the fiscal year due to higher costs for freight, packaging and materials. Net sales of agricultural carriers, fluids purification and animal health products increased while sales of co-packaged cat litters decreased. Net sales of Agsorb agricultural carriers increased due to price and volume. Verge granules generated incremental sales from the professional pesticide and agricultural markets. Fluids purification products net sales to edible oil and recycled oil markets increased. Animal health products benefited from a higher average net selling price although tons sold declined. Co-packaged cat litters continued to decline as cat litter consumers continued to switch from coarse to scoopable litters.
Retail and Wholesale Products Group
Net sales for the Company's were up 4% for the fiscal year due to a higher average net selling price and sales mix. Group income was down 11% due to higher costs for freight, packaging and materials. Investment for new product research and promotion exceeded prior year spending. Net sales increases were realized for both cat litter and floor absorbent products, which offset the Group's decrease in tons sold. Cat's Pride cat litter sales and volume were up primarily due to the product reinstatement with the Company's largest customer and initial sales of Fresh & Light cat litter in the fourth quarter. Net sales of floor absorbents were up due to higher selling prices. Sales of the Company's foreign subsidiaries were down significantly due to strong competition and the loss of major accounts.
On June 23, 2011, Oil-Dri's Board of Directors increased quarterly cash dividends to $0.17 per share of outstanding Common Stock and $0.1275 per share of outstanding Class B Stock. The dividends were payable September 2, 2011 to stockholders of record at the close of business on August 19, 2011. The Company has paid cash dividends continuously since 1974 and has increased dividends annually for the past eight years.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the annualized dividend yield on the Company's Common Stock was 3.3%, based on the quarter's stock closing price of $20.69 per share and the latest cash quarterly dividend of $0.17.
Cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments at July 31, 2011, totaled $33,722,000. Capital expenditures for the fiscal year totaled $13,806,000, which was $5,333,000 more than the fiscal year's depreciation and amortization of $8,473,000.
Jaffee continued, "This coming year we will focus our resources on accomplishing sales and marketing goals for Cat's Pride Fresh & Light. We will continue to invest heavily in marketing activities throughout fiscal 2012 and expect this product to positively impact earnings in fiscal 2013."
The Company will offer a live webcast of the fourth quarter earnings teleconference on Thursday, October 13, 2011 from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., Chicago Time. To listen to the call via the web, please visit or . An archived recording of the call and written transcripts of all teleconferences are posted on the Oil-Dri website.
Agsorb and Cat's Pride are registered trademarks of Oil-Dri Corporation of America. Fresh & Light and Verge are trademarks of Oil-Dri Corporation of America.
Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.
Oil-Dri Corporation of America is a leading supplier of specialty sorbent products for agricultural, horticultural, fluids purification, specialty markets, industrial and automotive, and is the world's largest manufacturer of cat litter.
Certain statements in this press release may contain forward-looking statements that are based on our current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our future performance, our business, our beliefs, and our management's assumptions. In addition, we, or others on our behalf, may make forward-looking statements in other press releases or written statements, or in our communications and discussions with investors and analysts in the normal course of business through meetings, webcasts, phone calls, and conference calls. Words such as "expect," "outlook," "forecast," "would", "could," "should," "project," "intend," "plan," "continue," "believe," "seek," "estimate," "anticipate," "believe", "may," "assume," variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such statements are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially including, but not limited to, the dependence of our future growth and financial performance on successful new product introductions, intense competition in our markets, volatility of our quarterly results, risks associated with acquisitions, our dependence on a limited number of customers for a large portion of our net sales and other risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are described in Item 1A (Risk Factors) of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these or other risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, intended, expected, believed, estimated, projected or planned. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Except to the extent required by law, we do not have any intention or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements after the distribution of this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in assumptions, or otherwise.
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Datum: 12.10.2011 - 20:30 Uhr
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