Donaldson Beats Q4 Expectations

Donaldson Company, Inc. (NYSE: DCI) reported upbeat results for its fiscal fourth quarter on Tuesday. The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company posted quarterly net earnings of $56.3 million, or $0.41 per share, compared to $73 million, or $0.50 per share, in the year-ago quarter. Excluding items, the company's earnings came in at $0.45 per share.Its revenue dropped 8.8 percent year-over-year to $609.7 million. Analysts were estimating a profit of $0.42 per share on revenue of $595.78 million.The average estimate among 4 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.43 per share and revenue of $600.11 million.Its gross margin shrank 2.6 percentage points to 33.1 percent, versus 35.7 percent. Its fourth quarter operating expenses as a percent of sales dropped 0.5 percentage points to 20.3 percent from 20.8 percent.During the fourth quarter, the company repurchased 1.57 million shares of its common stock for a total of $55.1 million."Our fourth quarter performance exceeded our guidance, driven by better-than-expected sales combined with expense discipline across our Company," said Tod Carpenter, President and CEO. "Although some of our end markets became increasingly challenged and uncertain as the fiscal year progressed, we delivered local-currency sales growth of over 1 percent for the year."Donaldson projects full-year earnings of $1.56 to $1.76 per share, on revenue of $2.32 billion to $2.42 billion.Donaldson shares fell 0.82 percent to close at $31.31 yesterday.