Diversified conglomerate Honeywell International Inc. (HON) on Friday reported a loss for the fourth quarter, reflecting hefty mark-to-market pension adjustments. Excluding charges, earnings increased from last year and topped Wall Street view, as revenues grew 8 percent.
Looking ahead, the company expects growth to moderate in the first half of 2012, but said it is confident of driving strong sales conversion leading to higher segment margins over the course of the year.
Fourth-quarter loss attributable to Honeywell was $310 million or $0.40 per share, compared to a profit of $369 million or $0.47 per share a year ago.
Pro forma earnings, which exclude the impact of pension mark-to-market adjustments of $1.44 per share, increased to $1.05 per share from $0.87 in the year-ago quarter.
On average, 21 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.04 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Sales grew 8 percent to $9.47 billion from $8.75 billion in the comparable period a year ago and increased from the prior quarter's $9.30 billion. Analysts estimated revenues of $9.56 billion.
In the Aerospace segment, sales grew 8 percent to $3.05 billion, primarily due to a 20 percent growth in Commercial original equipment and aftermarket volumes, partially offset by lower military sales and government services.
Performance Materials and Technologies generated 24 percent more sales in the quarter at $1.43 billion, owing to strong UOP project and catalyst sales, the phenol plant acquisition, and favorable pricing, the company noted.
Automation and Control Solutions sales grew 4 percent to $4.05 billion, driven by organic growth across the portfolio.
For the full year, profit attributable to Honeywell grew to $2.07 billion from $2.02 billion in the prior year. Earnings per share advanced to $2.61 from $2.59. Net sales climbed to $36.53 billion from last year's $32.35 billion. Wall Street expected earnings of $4.04 per share on revenues of $36.67 billion.
Looking forward, Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote said, "While we expect a more challenging macro environment ahead in 2012, primarily driven by softness in Europe impacting the short-cycle businesses, we're confident that Honeywell is well positioned to continue to outperform."
Honeywell shares closed on Thursday at $57.83, down from the previous close of $58.11, on 4.57 million shares.
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