Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON) this morning reported a better-than-expected third-quarter profit as a boom in natural gas drilling offset weakness in Europe.
The New Jersey-based diversified manufacturer posted adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $1.20 on revenues of $9.30 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported EPS of $1.10 on revenues of $9.30 billion. Third-quarter results also compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $1.14 and $9.51 billion in revenues.
The company’s chairman and CEO said:
Our balanced mix of long- and short-cycle businesses, combined with growth in new products and continued expansion in high growth regions, offset European weakness, lower demand for products in some of our short-cycle businesses in China and the U.S., and foreign exchange headwinds in the quarter. Further, we maintained strong backlogs with new platform wins across a number of our businesses. We continue to be encouraged by the commercial aerospace outlook, increasing infrastructure spending, and oil and gas investments. … Looking ahead to 2013, we are planning for a continued challenging macro environment, but expect to deliver good growth driven by new products, geographic expansion, and traction on key initiatives.
Sales and earnings were up in the Aerospace unit, but revenue was flat in the Automation and Controls and the Performance Materials segments. But both sales and earnings from the Transportation Systems unit fell.
The company narrowed its full year EPS outlook to $4.45 to $4.50 and lowered revenue guidance to $37.5 billion to $37.7 billion. The consensus analyst estimate calls for $4.50 per share and $38.1 billion.
Shares are down about 1.3% in premarket trading to $60.59. The 52-week range is $48.82 to $62.00, and the mean price target before today’s report was $68.32.
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