DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 
 

Black & Decker Corp. (BDK) reported better-than-expected sales and margin for the third quarter, which coupled with a lower-than-anticipated tax prompted the tool maker to sharply boost its earnings target for the period.

Shares climbed 7.3% premarket to $50.70.

It now sees earnings of 91 cents a share, compared with the company's downbeat July forecast of 35 cents to 45 cents.

Sales are expected to have fallen 23% - analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters most recently, on average, expected a 25% drop to $1.2 billion. Chairman and Chief Executive Nolan Archibald said the revenue outperformance was largely due to shipping promotional items in the U.S. industrial power-tools and the accessories business in the third quarter, not the fourth as had been planned.

Black & Decker has slashed its dividend and has taken other cost-cutting steps in an attempt to mitigate the impact of deteriorating markets, especially in Europe and the auto industry in general. But it boosted its reduced 2009 earnings target in July after second-quarter earnings topped expectations.

Margins were aided in the latest quarter by that cost-cutting, said Archibald.

Black & Decker is slated to release its third-quarter results on Oct. 22. At that time, the company will update its 2009 forecast.

-By Kevin Kingsbury; Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2136; kevin.kingsbury@dowjones.com