(By Balaseshan) Actuant Corp. (NYSE: ATU) reported a 2.4% decline in quarterly earnings due to lower sales from its Electrical and Engineered Solutions segments. Results missed Street's expectations and the maker of hydraulic systems guided second quarter below consensus.
The Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based company posted earnings for the first quarter of $36.3 million or $0.49 per share, down from $37.2 million or $0.50 per share last year.
Sales fell to $377.25 million from $392.8 million due to lower sales from its Electrical and Engineered Solutions segments.
Wall Street analysts, on average, expect ATU to earn 50 cents a share on sales of $396.37 million for the three months ending November.
Actuant's Industrial segment sales rose 1 percent, Energy segment sales jumped 13 percent. Electrical segment sales dropped 16 percent, while Engineered Solutions segment fell 10 percent.
Looking ahead for the second quarter, Actuant expects earnings per share in the range of $0.34 to $0.38 and sales of $360 million to $370 million, while analysts expect EPS of 46 cents on sales of $393.37 million.
For the fiscal 2013, the company lowered its sales guidance to range of about $1.60 billion to $1.625 billion from previous outlook of $1.68 billion to $1.72 billion. It still expects earnings per share of $2.20 to $2.30. Analysts expect earnings of $2.27 per share on sales of $1.68 billion.
The company's full year EPS guidance remains unchanged, yet it expects that the probability of attaining the high end of the range is low if current economic conditions and uncertainty continue. ATU continues to expect a challenging first half of fiscal 2013, followed by modest growth in the second half of the year.
The stock, which has been trading in the 52-week range of $20.05 to $31.33, gained 1.54 percent to end at $29.60 on Tuesday.