What happened
Shares of iRobot (IRBT 5.04%) were up 18.3% as of 1:30 p.m. EST Thursday after the home-robotics leader announced significantly stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results and solid guidance for 2020.
So what
More specifically on the former, iRobot's quarterly revenue climbed 10.9% year over year to $426.8 million, translating to adjusted net income of $19.7 million, or $0.69 per share (down from $0.88 in the year-ago period). Analysts on average were expecting earnings of just $0.40 per share on revenue of $415.5 million.
A Roomba "reading" its room map. Image source: iRobot.
Even more encouraging, iRobot's top-line growth was driven by the relative outperformance of its core U.S. segment, where revenue climbed 15% to $247.2 million despite steep competition from newer market entrants like SharkNinja. International revenue also grew 6% to $179.6 million.
"We believe that consumer demand ... remains fundamentally healthy, although we expect challenging U.S. market conditions to persist into 2020," said CEO Colin Angle. "As we move forward, we are focused on executing against our 2020 strategic priorities in ways that will enable us to drive near-term growth, fortify our leadership, and set us up to capitalize on a broad range of exciting longer-term opportunities."
Now what
For the full-year 2020, iRobot expects revenue to increase in a range of 9% to 11% from 2019, or to roughly $1.32 billion to $1.35 billion, which should translate to adjusted earnings per share of $1.70 to $2.30. The midpoint of both ranges stands well above consensus estimates for 2020 earnings of $0.85 per share on revenue of $1.32 billion.
In the end, this was as good a quarter as any iRobot investor could have asked for. And the beaten-down tech stock is responding in kind.
