By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Manpower (NYSE:MAN) shares touched their 52-week high Tuesday, boosted by the company's outlook for an even higher earnings per share after a January-March performance that beat its own estimate.
The shares eased off a bit, but were up more than 3%.
The workforce solutions provider reported net earnings of $1.11 per share for the three months ended March 31, compared to $0.03 per share in the prior year period.
This was despite the foreign exchange impact coming at a positive 6 cents, not very different but still lower than the benefit of 7 cents that it had predicted in February.
It had anticipated earnings per share in the first quarter to be between 64 cents and 72 cents.
The company has guided for EPS in the second quarter to be between $1.36 and $1.44. The company sees gains from foreign currency fluctuations – read, a weaker dollar – to continue in the April-June period as well. The benefit is estimated to be worth 10 cents.
Revenue for the first quarter was $4.9 billion, a 7% increase from the prior year period.
The company’s focus on collections and working capital efficiency improved its ‘days sales outstanding’ by 3.7 days over the same period last year.