Callaway Golf Warns Of Q1 Results

(RTTNews) - Callaway Golf Co. (ELY) expects to report net sales to be in the range of $438 million - $443 million for the first quarter of 2020, compared to $516 million for the same period in 2019. The decrease was attributable to the impact of COVID-19 on the company's golf equipment business and soft goods business. Foreign currencies negatively impacted net sales by about $4 million in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.

The company expects to report first quarter 2020 GAAP earnings per share to be in the range of $0.27 - $0.31 compared to first quarter 2019 GAAP earnings per share of $0.50.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $0.39 per share and revenues of $485.89 million for the first-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company also announced that E-commerce (both in the company's soft goods and golf equipment businesses) has been exceeding expectations globally and is partially offsetting the decline in wholesale and retail.

Due to the early impact from COVID-19, the company's golf and apparel businesses in China were down significantly at the beginning of the year but both have rebounded well, exceeding the company's expectations in April, with golf rebounding particularly strongly in-country.

Overall, the business is seeing core resilience across Asia, especially in Korea. As a result, the Company expects sales in that region will be a strong net contributor for the full year.

Even with the severe disruptions associated with COVID-19 in the first quarter, the company said its business in both Japan and Korea delivered revenue growth in the first quarter and is continuing to perform well in April.