Wednesday, W.W.Grainger, Inc (GWW), a distributor of facilities maintenance and other related products, said it expects fourth quarter earnings in the range of $1.13 - $1.23 per share on sales that are expected in a range of down 2% to up 1%.
On average, fifteen analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimate earnings of $1.21 per share on revenues of $1.55 billion for the quarter.
For the full year 2009, the company expects earnings in the range of $5.10 - $5.20 on sales that are expected to decline 9% - 10%. Earnings exclude the $0.37 per share gain attributable to becoming the majority shareholder of MonotaRO Co., Ltd in September.
For full-year 2009, analysts expect earnings of $5.19 per share on a revenue of $6.1 billion.
Grainger said that for the full year 2010, it expects earnings of $5.10 - $5.80 per share. The company has forecast revenues to range between 4% - 9%. The 2010 forecast includes an expected 3% sales contribution and $0.05 per share of earnings growth from acquisitions made in 2009.
Most notably, Grainger said that it expects Japan to add 2% to sales growth while only contributing $0.01per share to earnings growth in 2010 due to the change in accounting treatment triggered by increasing ownership from 38% to 53%. For the full-year 2010, the Street estimates earnings of $5.76 per share on revenues of $6.5 billion.
As the majority owner, Grainger will now report 100% of the sales and 53% of the earnings of Japan, as opposed to reporting 0% of the sales and 38% of the earnings as a minority owner.
GWW is currently trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $98.42, down $3.01 or 2.97%.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.