Richard Westenberg
Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer at Masco
Thank you, Keith, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining. As Robin mentioned, my comments today will focus on adjusted performance, excluding the impact of rationalization charges and other one-time items.
Turning to Slide 7, sales in the quarter were in-line with the prior year and increased 1%, excluding the unfavorable impact of currency. Our acquisition of Sauna360 in the third quarter of last year added 1% of growth to our third quarter results. However, this was offset by the impact of our Kichler divestiture during the third quarter.
In local currency, North American sales were in-line with the prior year, while international sales increased 3% in local currency. Despite relatively flat sales overall, our initiatives to drive operational efficiencies contributed to another quarter of strong gross margin performance at 36.7%, an expansion of 90 basis points year-over-year.
SG&A as a percent of sales was 18.6% and was impacted by the timing of marketing spend in our Decorative Architectural segment, as mentioned during our second quarter call. Overall, our operating profit grew $12 million to $360 million in the quarter, and our margin was strong at 18.2%. Our margin performance was primarily driven by executing on our cost savings initiatives. We also grew EPS during the quarter by 8% to $1.08 per share.
Turning to Slide 8, plumbing sales increased 2% in the third quarter. Currency had a minimum impact on the results. Volume in our Plumbing segment drove an increase in sales of 2% and acquisition -- acquisitions contributed 1% to growth year-over-year. This was partially offset by unfavorable mix, which reduced sales by 1%. North American plumbing sales increased 2%, driven by our acquisition and solid performance in the retail and e-commerce channels. In local currency, international plumbing sales increased 3%, driven by favorable volume and pricing actions, partially offset by unfavorable mix.
Demand continues to show signs of stabilizations in Europe. And while the China market remains challenged, we benefited from our pipeline of projects in the quarter. Segment operating profit in the third quarter was $242 million, up $17 million or 8% year-over-year. And operating margin was 19.9%, up a 100 basis points. This operating profit performance was driven primarily by cost savings initiatives and higher volumes, partially offset by unfavorable mix and higher commodity and freight costs.
Turning to Slide 9, decorative architectural sales decreased 3% in the third quarter. Currency and the divestiture of Kichler lowered sales by 1% each. In the quarter, total paint sales decreased low-single digits. PRO paint sales were up high-single digits and DIY paint sales decreased mid-single digits. The DIY paint market remained soft, and we now anticipate our full-year DIY paint business to be down high-single digits versus our previous expectation of down mid-single digits. In our PRO paint business, however, we continue to expect sales for the year to increase low-single digits. Operating profit was $138 million and operating margin was 18.1%. Operating profit was down $6 million year-over-year, impacted by the timing of marketing spend, an unfavorable price-cost relationship and lower volume, partially offset by cost savings initiatives.
Turning to Slide 10, our balance sheet remains strong with gross debt-to-EBITDA at 2 times at quarter end. We ended the quarter with $1.6 billion of liquidity, including cash and availability under our revolving credit facility. Working capital as a percent of sales was 16.4% and reflects the impact of the divestiture of Kichler, as well as our continued discipline with regards to our working capital levels. As a result of the divestiture impact, we now anticipate our working capital as a percent of sales to be approximately 16% at year-end versus our previous guidance of 16.5%.
During the third quarter, we repurchased 2.5 million shares for $192 million and paid a dividend of $63 million to shareholders. As Keith mentioned, we plan to deploy the net proceeds from the sale of Kichler, consistent with our capital allocation framework. As a result, we now expect to deploy approximately $750 million, up from $600 million during the year towards share repurchases or acquisitions.
Now let's turn to Slide 11 and review our outlook for 2024. For Total Masco, our year-to-date top-line has largely been in-line with expectations. Last quarter, we updated our second-half expectations to roughly flat as market conditions remain challenged. The fourth quarter, however, will also now be impacted by our divestiture of Kichler. As a result, we currently anticipate full-year sales to be down low-single digits versus our previous guide of plus or minus low-single digits. Despite this change, with our strong execution and operating margin performance year-to-date, we now expect full-year operating margin to be approximately 17.5%, which is at the high-end of our previous guide of approximately 17% to 17.5%.
In our Plumbing segment, we are maintaining our top-line expectation of full-year 2024 sales to be plus or minus low-single digits versus prior year, and our expected full-year operating margin to be approximately 19%. In our Decorative Architectural segment, we are lowering our 2024 sales expectation to be down mid-single digits year-over-year versus our previous guidance of down low-single digits, primarily due to our divestiture. In addition, the DIY paint market remained soft and has not shown signs of a material rebound. However, despite lower expected sales, we are maintaining our anticipated full-year operating margin of approximately 18%.
Finally, as Keith mentioned earlier, we are updating our 2024 EPS estimate to be in the range of $4.05 to $4.15 per share. This assumes a $219 million average diluted share count for the year and a 24.5% effective tax rate. As mentioned, there continues to be choppiness in the overall market. That said, we are focused on execution and controlling what we can control to deliver results within this range. Lastly, additional financial assumptions for 2024 can be found on Slide 14 of our earnings deck.
With that, I would like to open up the call for questions. Operator?
