Masco down over 13% after Q4 earnings fall short of analyst estimates

Monday night, Masco (MAS) reported Q4 EPS of (9c) from continuing operations vs. a consensus of (2c), and Q4 revenues of over $1.7B vs. a consensus of $1.78B. The company admitted 2011 was a "difficult year" and made optimistic comments for its 2012 outlook, saying that while its efforts to reduce costs and increase revenues did not improve performance as quickly as it anticipated in 2011, the company firmly believes that these actions will drive significant improvement in 2012, even if it sees no improvement in the housing markets. The comments did not help the stock in early trading today, as Masco is down $1.73, or 13.09%, to 11.49.