By Angela Chen
Honeywell International Inc. said its third-quarter earnings
rose 18%, driven by sales gains in almost all segments of the
industrial conglomerate.
Following the better-than-expected results, Honeywell also
raised its outlook for the year.
Shares of the Morristown, N.J-based company--basically flat over
the past year--rose 1.9% to $88 in premarket trading.
Though the global economic recovery has struggled to gain
momentum, industrial manufacturers in recent quarters have seen
cautious growth, and Honeywell, in particular, reported strong
earnings in the first half of the year.
The company has sought to improve margins by realigning its
business to focus on its aerospace, automation and control, and
high-tech materials operations.
This past March, the company said it plans to spend $10 billion
on strategic acquisitions that would contribute about $5 billion to
$8 billion in sales over the next five years.
For the third quarter, the company posted a profit of $1.17
billion, or $1.47 a share, up from year-ago earnings of $990
million, or $1.24 a share.
Total sales rose 4.8% to $10.11 billion. Product sales increased
5.2% to $8.09 billion, while service sales gained 3.3% to $2.02
billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had predicted revenue of
10.04 billion and earnings per share of $1.41.
The automation and control-systems business, which supplies the
commercial-construction industry, added 9% to $3.67 billion. The
aerospace business's sales were flat at $3.90 billion.
The company's performance materials and technologies sales
posted a 7% increase in sales to $2.52 billion, while
transportation systems sales fell 10% because of the sale of the
friction materials segment this summer.
For the year, Honeywell raised the lower end of its sales
guidance. The company now projects sales between $40.3 billion and
$40.4 billion, up 3% to 4% from a year ago and above its previous
guidance of $40.2 billion to $40.4 billion. It also increased its
per-share earnings guidance, exclude certain costs, to between
$5.50 and $5.55, which would be about 11% to 12% higher than a year
ago and up from the prior view of $5.45 to $5.50.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@wsj.com
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