Investing.com – Whirlpool stock (NYSE:WHR) fell nearly 4% in Friday’s premarket trading as the company cut its sales guidance for the year after third-quarter revenue fell behind expectations.
The maker of refrigerators and electric chimneys blamed supply chain issues for its shortfall, semiconductors particularly, according to Bloomberg, which quoted Whirlpool Chief Financial Officer Jim Peters.
“There have been times when we’ve had to air-freight components in from other locations to work around that. We’ve put product from China to Europe on rail instead of ships,” he said.
Retailers and manufacturers like Whirlpool and Nike (NYSE:NKE), while rolling in heightened consumer demand for their wares, have not been fully able to meet the demand for want of raw materials and shipments stuck at ports. Higher wages and labor shortage have hurt, too.
The company now expects its full-year net sales to grow by around 13%, a figure it had marked for itself in April when times were better and it felt its initial aim of around 6% growth was not ambitious enough. As demand boomed in July, Whirlpool forecast that 16% growth was achievable.
It raised its target for adjusted profit per share, now pegging it around $26.25.
Whirlpool’s net sales in the third quarter rose by around 4% to $5.48 billion. It set out a long-term net sales growth target of around 5.5% at midpoint.