UPDATE: Brown-Forman Posts Downbeat Q2 Earnings, Lowers Forecast

Brown-Forman (NYSE:

) reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the second quarter and lowered its earnings forecast for the full year. Brown-Forman still projects sales to rise 6% to 8% for the year ending April. However, the company lowered its profit forecast to a range of $3.15 to $3.35 per share, versus its earlier forecast of $3.25 to $3.45 per share. The Louisville, Kentucky-based company posted quarterly earnings of $208 million, or $0.97 per share, compared to $206 million, or $0.96 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Its sales gained 5.2% to $1.14 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $1.04 per share on revenue of $1.15 billion. During the first half of fiscal 2015, Brown-Forman repurchased a combined total of 2.2 million Class A and Class B shares for $203 million, at an average price of $91.20 per share. Paul Varga, the company's chief executive officer, said, "Brown-Forman's top-tier underlying results in the first half were roughly in-line with our expectations, despite the backdrop of a tough trading environment for our industry. As anticipated, underlying net sales growth accelerated in our second quarter, and we believe that underlying trends remain favorable as we head into the important holiday selling season." Brown-Forman shares declined 0.16% to $95.85 in pre-market trading.