Winnebago Industries Rolls Over Estimates, Down on Thursday

is down on Thursday despite posting a strong fiscal 2013 second quarter. The Forest City, Iowa-based firm posted a 633 percent gain in EPS at $0.22. This easily topped the Wall Street consensus of $0.15. Second quarter revenue climbed over 34.5 percent to around $177 million, surpassing estimates of approximately $171 million.

Winnebago's backlog of motorhomes nearly tripled year-over-year to 2,752, worth over $277 million. In this regard, Chairman, CEO and President Randy Potts stated, “Our motorhome sales growth continues to out-pace the industry. As evidenced by the heightened level of our sales order backlog, we continue to see great response to our products from our dealer partners as well as from retail consumers." Meanwhile, the RV manufacturer's backlog of towables dropped nearly nine percent to just over 381, worth about $8.1 million. Overall, the value of the company's backlogs increased 149 percent year-over-year.

On February 14, the company announced it was recognized by retail reporting service Statistical Surveys, Inc. as the top performing motorhome manufacturer. It had the largest volume and overall growth in motorhome registrations in the 2012 calendar year. Winnebago's market share grew from 19 to 20.6 percent for Class A and Class C motorhomes. And, its volume growth of 16.1 percent more than doubled industry growth of 7.3 percent. In March, the company also announced that its Era model was recognized by Statistical Surveys as the top Class B motorhome in North America.

Potts believes the motorized RV market will continue to grow toward pre-recession levels. He noted, “Improved economic indicators such as rising housing starts, lower unemployment and attractive interest rates should create a positive environment going forward." And,

suggested demand may surge in the near future. According to Forbes, the key segment of RV buyers is in the 55 to 64 age range. Per Forbes, the Baby Boomers are about to reach that age with more to follow over the next few years. Additionally, as notes Forbes, the stock market has recovered its pre-recession highs and housing is beginning to recover, which will free up cash for this demographic to hit the road.

Winnebago has hovered in the low $20s for the past three weeks and continues to do so on Thursday. However, the stock is down for the second day in a row, despite the company's successful earnings. Winnebago is down over two percent.