Actuant Sees Q2 Adj. EPS Below View; Backs FY Outlook

(RTTNews) - Actuant Corp. (ATU) said that it expects second quarter sales to be in the $265 million - $275 million range, with adjusted earnings per share of $0.10- $0.15. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report earnings of $0.21 per share and revenues of $265.84 million for the second-quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The second quarter outlook incorporates the normal seasonal slowdown experienced across nearly all of our businesses, along with moderating heavy duty truck demand in China.

Randy Baker, President and CEO of Actuant said, "As the first quarter results demonstrate, we believe we are on track to meet our financial guidance for the fiscal year. Our commitment to investing in organic growth initiatives, including commercial effectiveness and new products, is helping to deliver on our goal of sales outperformance versus the underlying markets. While we have seen margin headwinds, we are making progress correcting underlying operating inefficiencies, improving mix and restructuring our businesses where necessary.

For fiscal 2018, the company maintained its prior sales guidance in the $1.10 billion -$1.13 billion range with core sales now up 1-3%. It also maintained adjusted earnings per share guidance in the $1.05-1.15 range, with a full year estimated effective income tax rate of 5-10%. The effective date of the Viking divestiture and Mirage acquisition is consistent with initial 2018 guidance assumptions. Wall Street currently is looking for fiscal year 2018 earnings of $1.08 per share on annual revenues of $1.12 billion.

Free cash flow is projected to be in the $85-95 million range in fiscal 2018.