Engineered equipment and systems supplier Robbins & Myers Inc. (RBN), Monday reported a plunge in fourth quarter profit, on lower revenues reflecting weak customer orders. Earnings and revenues, however, came in above Street estimates. Looking ahead, Robbins & Myers also provided its earnings forecast for first quarter and full year 2010, indicated to come in below current Street estimates. For the fourth quarter, net income of the Dayton, Ohio-based company plummeted to $12.81 million or $0.39 per share from $30.63 million or $0.88 per share in the same quarter a year ago.
On average, six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.20 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimate typically excludes one-time items.
Sales for the quarter declined 32% to $155.19 million from $227.75 million in the prior-year quarter. Excluding currency translation effects, sales declined 28% in the quarter. The Street expected revenues of $136.80 million for the quarter.
Segment wise, sales from Fluid management decreased to $54.84 million from $90.50 million, Process management dropped to $63.66 million from $87.02 million a year ago. Romaco sales declined to $36.69 million from $50.23 million in the comparable quarter last year.
Sequentially, in the third quarter, Robbins & Myers' profit dropped to $10.3 million or $0.31 per share from $26.5 million or $0.77 per share last year, hurt primarily by a decline in orders. Quarterly revenues declined to $143.4 million from $201.0 million in the year ago quarter.
Selling, general and administrative expenses were $35.21 million, compared to $44.11 million in the year-earlier quarter.
Fourth quarter 2009 earnings before interest, taxes and minority interest (EBIT) were $15 million, 64% less than in the prior year fourth quarter primarily as a result of lower sales levels.
Robbins & Myers said it had $122 million of customer orders in the quarter, consistent with order levels for the two preceding quarters, and 38% lower than the prior year comparable period. Excluding currency translation effects, orders declined 35% in the quarter.
Peter Wallace, President and Chief Executive Officer said, "We started fiscal 2009 in a favorable economic environment with significant backlog, but during the year order levels were negatively impacted by the global recession. We responded to these changing business conditions by cutting more than $15 million of annualized costs, and we developed plans to restructure our business for more permanent cost reductions."
The company said it has initiated the first two of restructuring actions which should reduce annualized costs by $3 million when completed later this fiscal year, and an additional $3-4 million of annualized savings by fiscal year-end.
For the full year, net income dropped to $55.36 million or $1.66 per share from $87.40 million or $2.52 per share a year ago. Sales for the year dropped to $640.36 million from $787.17 million in the prior-year. Analysts' expected earnings of $1.47 per share, on revenues of $621.99 million for the year.
Citing current customer order levels, Robbins & Myers said it expects fiscal 2010 to start slowly, but improve throughout the year as the global economy recovers. Robbins & Myers said it expects first quarter earnings in the range of $0.05 to $0.15 per share and full-year 2010 earnings in the range of $0.80 to $1.00 per share, excluding restructuring actions.
Street currently expects earnings of $0.22 for the first quarter and $1.19 per share for the full-year 2010.
RBN closed Monday's regular trading at $23.15, up $0.55 or 2.43%, on a volume of 0.30 million shares. In after-hours, the stock dropped $1.75 or 7.56%, to trade at $21.40.
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