Middleby Struggles With Falling Earnings

Economic conditions have been a mixed bag for kitchen equipment provider Middleby (NASDAQ: MIDD) lately. On one hand, consumers have been economically strong, and the housing market has rebounded sharply from the financial crisis nearly a decade ago. Yet restaurants and other buyers of commercial food equipment have seen greater struggles, and the timing hasn't worked out as well as Middleby would have hoped when it implemented an acquisition strategy geared toward expansion in multiple directions.

Coming into Tuesday's third-quarter financial report, Middleby investors had expected modest gains in both revenue and profit. The company was only able to deliver on half of that proposition, and the decline in earnings was a cause for concern among many investors. Let's look more closely at Middleby to see why some aren't happy about its latest news.

Image source: Middleby.

Source: Fool.com