Feb. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Avon Products Inc., the world’s largest door-to-door cosmetics seller, said fourth-quarter profit rose after restructuring charges hurt earnings a year earlier.

Fourth-quarter net income increased 80 percent to $232.4 million, or 54 cents a share, from $128.9 million, or 30 cents, a year earlier, the New York-based maker of Skin So Soft lotion and Anew night cream said today in a statement.

Revenue fell 8.7 percent to $2.81 billion from $3.08 billion a year earlier as the U.S. dollar strengthened. Shifts in foreign-exchange rates lowered revenue by 11 percent, the company said. Sales in Latin America, which accounts for about a third of Avon’s revenue, fell 5 percent. The company’s sales in the region rose 25 percent in the third quarter.

“They’re relying more and more on Latin America for the business,” Ali Dibadj, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, said today in a telephone interview. “The question going forward is, ‘Is that really a sustainable trend that Latin America survives the rest of the world’s economic woes?’”

Sales in central and eastern Europe declined 14 percent, and dropped 16 percent in western Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“The significant negative impact of foreign exchange and the depressed economy hurt our fourth-quarter revenue performance,” Chief Executive Officer Andrea Jung said in the release. “It is prudent to assume these pressures will continue for the foreseeable future.”

Profit excluding restructuring costs was 55 cents a share. Twelve analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimated profit of 60 cents, excluding some costs.

Restructuring Costs

Profit a year earlier was 64 cents, excluding a 34-cent restructuring expense. Avon realigned operations in Germany and other overseas locations, moved call centers and transaction processing to outside firms and changed distribution in western Europe and Latin America.

The company also said today it is boosting its quarterly dividend by 5 percent to 21 cents a share.

Avon, which sells products in more than 100 countries, rose $1.66, or 8.6 percent, to $21 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares lost 39 percent last year.

The company competes against direct sellers such as Mary Kay Inc., as well as drugstores that sell makeup including Procter & Gamble Co.’s Cover Girl and L’Oreal SA’s Maybelline.

To contact the reporter on this story: Allison Abell Schwartz in New York at aabell@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 3, 2009 16:07 EST