Lennox International Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of heating and cooling specialist Lennox International (NYSE: LII  ) climbed 10% today after its third-quarter results topped Wall Street estimates.

So what: Economic worries have hit Lennox shares pretty hard over the past few months, but today's beat -- earnings of $0.80 per share versus the consensus of $0.78, on 12.8% revenue growth -- suggests things aren't that bad. In fact, management even took advantage of the market angst by repurchasing about $55 million of stock during the quarter, giving bulls even more reason to remain confident.

Now what: Expect things to remain steady in the short term. For the full year, management sees adjusted EPS of $2.00-$2.15 on revenue growth of 7%-9% (largely in line with estimates) and even upped its buyback target to $120 million in total. Of course, given Lennox's slim margins and big debt load, larger, more financially sound rivals like Johnson Controls (NYSE: JCI  ) and United Technologies (NYSE: UTX  ) seem like safer long-term picks.

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