The world's biggest carpet maker continued to roll up record profits last year and expects to boost sales even higher in 2015.
Mohawk Industries Inc. said Thursday its fourth quarter net earnings, excluding unusual charges, rose 27 percent over a year ago to $167 million, or $2.27 per share, on sales of $1.95 billion.
The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.22 per share.
For the year, the company reported profit of $532 million, or $7.25 per share. Revenue rose last year by 6 percent to $7.8 billion.
Mohawk CEO Jeff Lorberbaum said he expects sales to continue to improve with the economy this year.
"We anticipate stronger organic growth on a local basis in 2015, driven by improvements in the U.S. economy and the flooring market," he said. "In the U.S., rising consumer confidence supported by lower gasoline prices, low interest rates, increased home values and an improving job market should drive higher growth in our category."
Last year, Lorberbaum said Mohawk benefited by "aggressive cost containment and benefits of our acquisitions," including the Marazzi Group and Spano Group for $1.6 billion in 2013 and Pergo for $150 million in 2012.
In January, Mohawk announced plans to buy the Belgium-based IVC Group for $1.2 billion, which Lorberbaum said Thursday should close this spring.
The acquisitions have made Mohawk the biggest floorcovering business in the world. Lorberbaum said the strengthening dollar and weakening Euro have hurt foreign earnings.
"While we cannot affect the exchange rates, we are aggressively implementing productivity initiatives, administrative reductions and other cost containment projects to minimize the impact," Lorberbaum said.
Mohawk announced its earnings results after the market closed Thursday. In after-market trading, shares of Mohawk jumped by $4.83 per share, or 2.8 percent, to $172.67 -- within 33 cents per share of the all-time high reached last week.
Mohawk Industries shares have climbed 11 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen almost 2 percent.