Eaton Q1 Profit Tops Views

reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter on Wednesday. The Dublin, Ireland-based company reported quarterly net income of $466 million, or $0.99 per share, compared to $439 million, or $0.92 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding items, the company's operating earnings came in at $1.01 per share. Its revenue slipped 5 percent year-over-year to $5.22 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $0.98 per share on revenue of $5.30 billion. The average estimate among 6 Estimize users was for earnings of $1.00 per share and revenue of $5.33 billion. Sales for the Electrical Products segment fell 2 percent year-over-year to $1.7 billion in the first quarter. Sales for the Electrical Systems and Services segment dropped 5 percent to $1.4 billion, while Hydraulics segment sales dipped 15 percent to $665 million. Aerospace segment sales came in flat at $464 million, while the Vehicle segment sales declined 4 percent to $955 million. Alexander M. Cutler, Eaton chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Our first quarter results are a solid start to the year, coming in slightly above the midpoint of our guidance despite the impact from additional negative currency translation." "As a result of weaker conditions in some of our markets, we now anticipate our organic revenue growth in 2015 will be between 2 and 3 percent, 1 percent lower than our earlier estimate," added Cutler. For the full year, Eaton projects earnings of $4.65 to $4.95 per share. The company also expects Q2 earnings of $1.10 to $1.20 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $1.20 per share. Eaton shares fell 1.11 percent to close at $68.61 yesterday.