Kennametal Q4 Profit Falls

(RTTNews) - Kennametal Inc. (KMT) Thursday announced a sharp fall in fourth quarter net income attributable to the company to $21.146 million from $45.455 million in the prior year. Earnings per share declined to $0.26 from $0.57 last year. On an adjusted basis, earnings were $0.46 per share, down from $0.79 per share a year ago.

On average 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.44 per share. Analysts estimates usually excludes special items.

Total sales for the fourth quarter was $637.65 million, down from $772.20 million a year ago.

Fore the full year, the company reported net loss of $373.89 million or $4.71 per share, compared to a profit of $158.37 million or $1.99 per share last year. On an adjusted basis, earnings were $2.02 per share, down from $2.53 per share last year. Wall Street expected $2.00 per share on revenue of $2.63 billion.

Sales for the full year declined seven percent to $2.647 billion from $2.837 billion a year ago.

Looking ahead, the company expects earnings per share for fiscal 2016 in a range of $1.70 to $2.00 per share, including foreign currency headwinds of $.30 to $.35 per share. Wall Street expects $2.11 per share on revenue of $2.50 billion.

Further, the company raised its quarterly cash dividend by 11 percent to $0.20, payable on August 26, to shareholders on record August 11, 2015.