Pentair Swings To Q3 Loss On Impairment Charge

(RTTNews) - Pentair Ltd. (PNR), a water and filtration-system provider, Tuesday reported a swing to loss in the third quarter from a profit last year, hurt by a hefty impairment charge related to its exit from Water Transport business in Australia.

Pentair reported a third-quarter loss of $186.0 million or $0.95 per share, compared to a profit of $172.8 million or $0.85 per share last year.

Pentair's third-quarter results reflect an impairment charge of $380 million, linked to the estimated loss on disposal of its Water Transport business in Australia.

Third-quarter earnings from continuing operations improved to $1.00 per share from adjusted earnings of $0.82 last year.

On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.94 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Pentair's sales for the quarter rose to $1.76 billion from $1.71 billion last year. Sales from its valves and controls division were flat at $613 million, while process technologies rose 4 percent to $438 million. Flow technologies dropped 2 percent to $275 million, while technical solutions business gained 8 percent to $439 million.

Sixteen analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.77 billion for the quarter.

Looking forward to the fourth quarter, the company expects earnings of $1.02 to $1.04 per share and revenues of about $1.86 billion.

Analysts currently expect fourth-quarter earnings of $1.01 per share on revenues of $1.88 billion.

For the full-year 2014, the company now expects adjusted earnings of $3.72 to $3.74 per share and sales of $7.1 billion. Pentair had earlier projected earnings of $3.65 to $3.70 per share and sales of about $7.2 billion.

Analysts currently expect full-year earnings of $3.68 per share on revenues of $7.19 billion.

PNR is currently trading at $65.01, up $0.78 or 1.21%, on the NYSE.