Oct. 27--Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) said Tuesday its earnings per share fell 29% in the fiscal fourth quarter, but it remains confident that the year that just began will show improved results.

In the quarter, sales fell 16% from $9.3 billion last year to $7.9 billion this year. Earnings excluding restructuring charges were 52 cents a share, down from 73 cents last year.

The company said its automotive business returned to profitability after plant closings and other cost-cutting moves launched in response to the recession and its impact on the auto industry. For the full fiscal year, the company said sales fell 25% to $28.5 billion and the company posted a loss of $338 million, or 57 cents a share, compared with a profit in the prior year of $979 million, or $1.63 per share.

"We entered 2009 with two of our markets already depressed -- North American automotive and residential HVAC. As the year progressed, we navigated through customer and supplier bankruptcies and deteriorating global economic conditions," said Steve Roell, Johnson Controls chairman and CEO. "We responded throughout the year with actions to significantly improve our cost structure and liquidity."

Sales fell in all three of the company's businesses -- automotive seats and interiors, car batteries, and building controls and energy systems. The quarter's results were hurt in part by a warranty charge for the company's York air conditioning and heating equipment business.

The company is bidding on about 3,300 projects, worth approximately $2.7 billion, that are directly attributable to the federal stimulus package, but Johnson Controls said it continues to see delays of projects where customers are waiting to determine funding eligibility under the program.

Stimulus projects "will have a meaningful positive impact on financial performance in the second half of fiscal 2010," the period from April through September 2010, the company said.

In the year that just began, Johnson Controls expects sales to rise by 9%, to $31 billion. Earnings are forecast at $1.35 to $1.45 per share.

Based in Glendale, Johnson Controls is the largest Wisconsin-based company and the only state company on the Fortune 100.

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