Herbalife Ltd. (NYSE:HLF) reported net income above Wall Street’s expectations for the fourth quarter. Net income for the drug company rose to $105.4 million (86 cents per share) vs. $86.3 million (69 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier. This marks a rise of 22.1% from the year-earlier quarter. Revenue rose 19.8% to $884.6 million from the year-earlier quarter. Herbalife Ltd. beat the mean analyst estimate of 73 cents per share. It beat the average revenue estimate of $856.6 million.

“The momentum in our business continued throughout 2011 as we set new records in net sales, earnings per share, and free cash flow,” said Michael O. Johnson, the company’s chairman and CEO. “Equally important, we continue to set records in many Distributor metrics that are the foundation for continued growth, including activity levels and retention rates of Sales Leaders.”

Competitors to Watch: Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:NUS), USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:USNA), Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE:AVP), Nature’s Sunshine Prod. (NASDAQ:NATR), The Estee Lauder Companies Inc. (NYSE:EL), Alberto-Culver Company (NYSE:ACV), Mannatech, Inc. (NASDAQ:MTEX), Walgreens (NYSE:WAG), CVS (NYSE:CVS), Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), Target (NYSE:TGT) and Reliv International, Inc (NASDAQ:RELV).

Chiquita Brands International Inc.’s (NYSE:CQB) fourth quarter loss narrowed, beating estimates. Loss narrowed to $16 million (loss of 36 cents per diluted share) from $19.7 million (loss of 43 cents per share) in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue fell 6.6% to $722 million from the year-earlier quarter. Chiquita Brands International Inc. reported an adjusted net loss of 12 cents per share. By that measure, the company beat the mean analyst estimate of a loss of 17 cents per share. It fell short of the average revenue estimate of $758.4 million.

“We delivered a fourth consecutive year of comparable profitability, improving our results over last year, particularly in the fourth quarter, which benefitted from our efforts to drive down costs as well as from the refinancing activities we completed earlier in the year,” said Fernando Aguirre, chairman and chief executive officer. “We had a much better year in bananas driven by higher pricing and volume in North America, and initial recovery in Europe. Our salads business did not perform as well as expected and we’ve taken a number of corrective actions and adapted our structure and strategy to be more successful and profitable.”

Competitors to Watch: Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. (NYSE:FDP), Dole Food Company, Inc. (NYSE:DOLE), Total Produce plc (NYSE:TOT), Alico (NASDAQ:ALCO), Limoneira (NASDAQ:LMNR), Inventure Foods (NASDAQ:SNAK), ConAgra (NYSE:CAG), Seneca Foods (NASDAQ:SENEB) and TreeHouse (NYSE:THS).

To contact the reporter on this story: Derek Hoffman at staff.writers@wallstcheatsheet.com

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Damien Hoffman at editors@wallstcheatsheet.com

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