Wall Street's reaction to the Q1 2006 earnings news out from American Standard (NYSE: ASD) Wednesday can perhaps best be described as patriotic. News that the company had hit the high end of its own earnings guidance, and beat the Street's expectations, was met with snapped salutes and a share price bump of as much as 8%. With the excitement wearing off a bit Thursday morning, and the sweet strains of "God Bless America" fading into the distance, let's take a moment to pause and reflect on the numbers.
For the quarter, American Standard delivered 9% sales growth over last year's Q1 -- half again as much as the analysts had expected. In profits, the company earned $0.43 per share, or $0.40 per share after you account for stock options expensing.
Granted, the company did not generate free cash flow during the quarter. The good news, though, is that American Standard reduced its quarterly cash burn in comparison with last year, burning through $61 million in free cash versus nearly $99 million last year. If that still worries you, though, don't fret. Over the course of the year, American usually makes up the difference. This year, for example, the company predicts it will end up with as much as $600 million in free cash flow generated, which would make for a 17% improvement over 2005 if achieved.
What are the chances of American Standard hitting that goal? I'd say they hinge on two primary factors. First, as mentioned in my Foolish Forecast earlier this week, is the need to get the kitchen and bath segment back on the growth track. CEO Fred Poses admitted in the earnings release that the division performed, sadly, about as expected -- actually losing the company money this year, in contrast to contributing profits last year. The company is continuing its efforts to fix this division and expects to start seeing results next quarter.
Although kitchen and bath is lagging, however, the company's air-conditioning division is going gangbusters on the back of a new product offering -- a whole-house air purifier from the company's Trane division. Poses noted that the new product helped to increase the division's sales by 16% year over year, contributing outsize profits that helped boost the division's earnings by 49%.
The idea of air purification appears to be catching on with consumers. Rival Lennox (NYSE: LII) is selling a similar system. Rival United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) plans to begin marketing its own version this month. While the competitors' attempts to capture this market might cut into American Standard's newfound profits, their interest -- and advertising -- should also help to increase consumer awareness of the product, to the benefit of all players.
Hmm. Come to think of it, there may be one player who suffers from an interest in whole-house air cleaning. Sharper Image (Nasdaq: SHRP), and its one-room-only Ionic Breeze product, could suffer. Fools beware.
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Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above.
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