Robot maker soars after quarterly report

Just a day after reporting third-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street’s expectations, iRobot Corp.’s shares shot up. The Bedford company, which makes robots such as the Roomba vacuum cleaner, said it earned $2.6 million, or 10 cents per share, compared with $3.9 million, or 15 cents, in the same quarter last year. Analysts expected a profit of 2 cents per share. IRobot forecast fourth-quarter earnings of 9 to 13 cents per share on sales of $98 million to $108 million. For the next quarter, analysts expect a profit of 16 cents per share on sales of $98.3 million.