Identification products maker Brady Corp. (BRC), Friday reported a sharp decline in profit for the fourth quarter, as Asia-Pacific sales dropped significantly, reflecting increased competitiveness in the mobile handset industry.
Moving ahead, the company issued its guidance for the full year 2013, in line with analysts expectations.
Geographically, sales for the quarter grew 3.0 percent in the Americas and 0.6 percent in EMEA, but plunged 14.6 percent in the Asia-Pacific region.
Chief Executive Frank Jaehnert said, "In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 we were pleased with our organic sales growth in the Americas and EMEA regions, despite a continued challenging economy. Our performance in Asia-Pacific was weaker than expected due to increased market competitiveness, particularly in the mobile handset industry."
Fourth-quarter net sales declined 6 percent to $322.5 million from $343.1 million last year. Analysts on a consensus expected revenues of $327.18 million for the quarter.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Brady's net income for the fourth quarter dropped to $11.7 million or $0.22 per share from $29.6 million or $0.55 per share last year.
Excluding special items, earnings for the fourth quarter slipped to $0.47 per share from $0.58 per share last year. On average, seven analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.52 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Looking forward to the full year 2013, Brady expects adjusted earnings in the range of $2.20 to $2.40 per share. Analysts currently expect earnings of $2.32 per share for the year.
"As we look to fiscal 2013, we see limited likelihood that the macro-economy will provide a tailwind," said Chief Financial Officer, Thomas Felmer. "As such, we anticipate low single-digit organic growth in fiscal 2013, with all of the growth driven by our initiatives," he added.
BRC is currently trading at $28.89, up $0.27 or 0.96%, on a volume of 0.2 million shares, on the NYSE.
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