Fortune Brands, Inc., which owns Titleist and FootJoy, raised the low end of its 2010 earnings estimate Tuesday citing first-quarter results that are substantially higher than the year-ago quarter.


In advance of its annual meeting of shareholders today, the company said that it anticipates reporting diluted earnings per share of approximately 47 cents for the first quarter. On a before charges/gains basis, the company expects to report diluted EPS of approximately 49 cents, an increase of 63% from 30 cents in the year-ago quarter. Fortune’s brand portfolio includes Jim Beam bourbon in its distrilled spirits business, Moen faucets in its home products and security business and The Acushnet Company, which owns golf brands Titelist and FootJoy.  


Net sales for the quarter rose 13%, driven by strong sales increases for the companys spirits and home products brands. Overall results benefited from market share gains, improving consumer markets, rebuilding of inventories by channel partners in certain home products categories, foreign exchange and favorable year-over-year comparisons. The company will report complete results for the first quarter on Thursday, April 29.

Fortune Brands is off to an excellent start in 2010, said Bruce Carbonari, chairman and chief executive officer of Fortune Brands. The work we did during the downturn to position Fortune Brands for accelerated growth is paying off. Each of our three brand groups performed above our expectations in the quarter as we gained share in key product categories and the consumer environment was better than anticipated. At the same time, the leverage of higher volumes on our lower cost base enabled us to deliver very strong EPS growth versus last years challenging first quarter.


While one quarter doesnt make a year, we are raising the bottom end of our earnings target range to reflect our first-quarter performance, Carbonari continued. We are holding the high end of our range because there is still uncertainty in global economies and it remains to be seen how the expiration of U.S. government stimulus programs will impact home products demand. In addition, raw materials costs have increased, the U.S. dollar has strengthened, and, as previously indicated, we are increasing high-return strategic investment in our brands to capitalize on the improved consumer environment.


The company is now targeting to deliver EPS before charges/gains for 2010 in the range of $2.50-2.80 versus its prior target of $2.30-2.80.