The Herbalife profit machine keeps churning out the cash — but it still doesn’t have audited financials.
The controversial protein-shake seller reported third-quarter adjusted net income of $1.41 per diluted share, a 44 percent gain from the year-earlier period that beat Wall Street forecasts.
Sales in the quarter jumped 19 percent to $1.2 billion.
“We continue to execute on our core strategies and deliver record financial performance, marking our sixteenth consecutive quarter of double-digit top-line growth,” said CEO Michael Johnson.
Herbalife also announced it expanded its board of directors by bringing on former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, a Hispanic born in New York City.
Carmona’s hire was another effort to quell the critics, who now include Hispanic and black consumer activists and former distributors as well as hedge-fund mogul Bill Ackman, who called Herbalife a pyramid scheme.
Herbalife denies the charge and said it has spent $23.8 million this year in legal costs associated with defending itself.
Herbalife shares jumped 2.3 percent to $67.92 in anticipation of strong earnings, which were released after the bell.
Shares fell 1.0 percent in after hours trading.
One disappointment to investors was the lack of audited financials, which some analysts had expected by now. One board member said they should be completed by Dec. 31.
During the quarter, Herbalife bought back 1.7 million of its outstanding shares, spending $110 million, but it made no mention of the $2 billion leveraged buyback that investors have been clamoring for to fight Ackman’s $1 billion short.
Herbalife needs audited financials to line up financing for any buyback. Its new auditors, PricewaterhouseCooopers — hired in May after its former accountant from KPMG resigned following an insider trading scandal — have not yet signed off on the numbers.
Since August, Ackman has been peppering PwC with letters detailing what he believes are lapses in the Los Angeles company’s accounting, among other matters the accountant should consider before approving the financials.