For the first quarter ended June 30, 2012, Arctic Cat reported net sales of $111.3 million and net earnings of $2.0 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, compared to first quarter ended June 30, 2011 net sales of $74.9 million and net loss of $2.3 million, or $0.13 per diluted share.
An increase in net sales for all product lines, a 114 basis point gross margin improvement and lower operating expenses as a percent of sales contributed to improved quarterly results compared to the same period in the prior year.
ATV sales for the first quarter increased 93 per cent year-over-year led by strong contributions from their Wildcat sport and Prowler utility side-by-side vehicles, and core ATVs. They expect North American ATV retail sales will be flat to up 5 per cent and North American ROV industry retail sales to be up 10 to 20 per cent this fiscal year.
Their snowmobile sales in the fiscal 2013 first quarter rose 4 per cent to $18.0 million, up from $17.4 million in the prior year's quarter. For the 2013 model year, they are building snowmobiles on their new ProCross performance and ProClimb mountain chassis platforms, introduced in fiscal 2012, and will continue offering innovative suspension, drive and braking technologies. The staff at Arctic Cat are committed to investing in research and development, in order to remain an industry innovation leader. They expect fiscal 2013 North American industry retail snowmobile sales to be flat to up 2 per cent.
Sales of parts, garments and accessories in the fiscal 2013 first quarter increased 3 per cent to $20.4 million versus $19.7 million in the prior year's quarter. Contributing to the growth were accessory sales for the Wildcat ROV. Arctic Cat's growing line of Wildcat accessories now includes 43 wide-ranging options for riding enjoyment and vehicle customization.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, based on results year-to-date and expected performance, we now anticipate sales in the range of $662 million to $682 million, an increase of 13 per cent to 17 per cent versus fiscal 2012. We estimate that fiscal 2013 earnings per diluted share will be in the range of $2.55 to $2.65, an increase of 48 per cent to 54 per cent over fiscal 2012.
