Actuant Q4 Profit Drops; Guides 2015; To Buy Back Shares - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Actuant Corp. (ATU), a manufacturer of industrial products, posted lower fourth-quarter net earnings of $35.59 million or $0.51 per share, compared with $58.25 million or $0.78 per share, a year before. The company said the recent quarter's results included a gain on the RV divestiture, as well as accelerated restructuring charges, which on an after-tax basis largely offset one another. Excluding a non-recurring, non-cash tax gain of $10.6 million, or $0.14 per share, fourth-quarter fiscal 2013 earnings per share from continuing operations was $0.46.

On the other hand, consolidated net sales for the quarter totaled $354.3 million, 8% higher than the $327.26 million, reported last year. Core sales were down by 1%, while acquisitions, net of divestitures, added 7% and foreign currency translation contributed 2% to total sales growth, the company said.

On average, 8 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings per share of $0.52, on $356.67 million revenue for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Commenting on the outlook, Actuant's Chief Executive, Mark Goldstein said: "Actuant's fiscal 2015 outlook reflects ongoing market uncertainties and uneven customer demand trends. While certain end markets are experiencing strong demand including energy, others such as off-highway, mining and defense remain challenged. We are currently expecting fiscal 2015 core sales growth of 3-5%. Assuming a modest headwind from the stronger US dollar, we expect total sales of $1.425-1.475 billion. EPS is expected to be in the range of $2.05-2.15 in fiscal 2015, which takes into account several items in addition to core growth including cost savings from prior year actions, additional restructuring initiatives, a lower outstanding share count and a higher effective income tax rate." Eight analysts estimate annual earnings of $2.23 per share on sales of $1.46 billion.

Further, the board approved a new 7.0 million share repurchase program earlier this week. Nearly $100 million cash was deployed on the purchase of around 3.0 million shares in the fourth quarter. In addition, approximately $60 million was deployed on 1.8 million shares since fiscal year end, resulting in no shares remaining under the previous March 2014 seven million share authorization.