What happened Shares of battery manufacturer Energizer Holdings (NYSE: ENR) short-circuited in early Thursday trading, dropping 11.1% through 10:40 a.m. EST. The sell-off came in response to adjusted fourth-quarter earnings that came in below consensus this morning. Analysts had forecast Energizer would earn $0.81 per share, pro forma, on sales of $747.2 million. In fact, Energizer beat that revenue forecast, collecting $763 million, but its earnings came up short at $0.59 per share, https://twitter.com/themotleyfool/status/1126323721021677569!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");. Image source: Getty Images. So what Pro forma results also appear to overstate Energizer's profit, as the company suffered a quarterly loss of $0.67 per share when earnings are calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). For the year, however, Energizer remained profitable at $0.44 per share on a GAAP basis. Sales for the fourth fiscal quarter grew a better-than-expected 6% in comparison to last year's final quarter, although this was a deceleration from the 10% sales growth Energizer enjoyed for the year as a whole. Now what Looking ahead to the fiscal year 2021 now underway, Energizer gave new guidance for sales growth ranging from 2% to 4%. Management did not give a GAAP earnings estimate for 2021, but did say that its adjusted earnings per share will range from $2.95 to $3.25. At the midpoint, this appears likely to fall short of analysts' projected $3.13. In addition to the Q4 earnings miss, this gives investors a second reason to want to sell Energizer stock today. 10 stocks we like better than Energizer HoldingsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Energizer Holdings wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of October 20, 2020 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source