UPDATE: Titan Machinery Posts Downbeat Q3 Earnings, Lowers Forecast

Titan Machinery (NASDAQ: TITN) reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the third quarter and lowered its FY14 outlook.The West Fargo, North Dakota-based company posted quarterly net income attributable to common stockholders of $2.4 million, or $0.11 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $5.7 million, or $0.27 per share. Excluding items, the company earned $0.14 per share.Its revenue declined to $493.1 million from $588.0 million in the period. However, analysts were projecting earnings of $0.23 per share on revenue of $521.6 million.Equipment sales fell to $343.5 million from $441.8 million, while parts sales declined to $80.7 million from $80.9 million. Revenue generated from service rose to $42.4 million from $40.6 million, while revenue from rental and other climbed to $26.6 million from $24.7 million.Gross profit margin widened to 17.2% from 15.9%.Titan Machinery ended the quarter with cash of $110.2 million. Its inventory level slipped to $1.06 billion as of October 31, 2014, versus $1.18 billion as of October 31, 2013.David Meyer, Titan Machinery's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, “Our Agriculture segment continues to face a number of industry headwinds as we have previously discussed, including lower commodity prices and lower projected net farm income. While this has resulted in farmers' reducing their spending on equipment and in turn impacted our financial results, we remain confident in our business model and the long-term outlook for the agriculture industry."For the full year, Titan Machinery projects earnings of $0.10 to $0.30 per share, on revenue of $1.85 billion to $2 billion. The company had earlier expected earnings of $0.30 to $0.60 per share, on revenue of $$1.9 to $2.1 billion.Titan Machinery shares rose 0.83% to close at $12.08 yesterday.