UPDATE: ITT Tops Q4 Views

reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter. The White Plains, New York-based company posted quarterly earnings of $33.7 million, or $0.36 per share, compared to $11.2 million, or $0.12 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time items, the company earned $0.59 per share. Its revenue gained 2% to $660 million. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.57 per share on revenue of $648 million. Revenue for Industrial Process segment gained 15% to $341 million in the quarter, while Motion Technologies revenue dropped 13% to $157 million. Interconnect Solutions revenue fell 10% to $91 million, while Control Technologies revenue gained 5% to $73 million in the quarter. Denise Ramos, chief executive officer and president said, "As we move into 2015 and continue to face a difficult external environment with global oil and gas market and foreign exchange headwinds, we will proactively drive internal initiatives that will focus on optimizing execution, expanding our global transportation and industrial markets and deploying capital effectively. Through our collective focus in these areas, we will effectively drive our multi-industry strategy, which is keenly focused on long-term growth and value creation for stakeholders. And, we will continue to leverage our diversified and balanced portfolio, which we expect to further enhance with a pending $30 million revenue producing aerospace acquisition." For the full year, ITT projects earnings of $2.55 to $2.65 per share on revenue decline of 1% to 3%. The company projects organic revenue growth of 1% to 3%. Analysts had projected earnings of $2.61 per share on sales growth of 1%. ITT shares rose 1.94% to close at $39.42 yesterday.