Honeywell 3Q Sales Flat, EPS Up 9 Percent
CEO Dave Cote said "the commercial aerospace outlook, increasing infrastructure spending, and oil and gas investments" are encouraging.
The largest publicly traded U.S. safety companies are beginning to report their third quarter 2012 financial results, with Honeywell making its announcement Oct. 19. The bright spot was a 9 percent increase in earnings per share, to $1.20 from $1.10 a year earlier. Sales were up 2 percent, essentially flat, with the Automation and Control Solutions segment's sales up slightly, from $3.948 billion to $3.958 billion, and its profit up 5 percent on higher sales volume in the Americas for fire and security, the company reported.
"We continue to be encouraged by the commercial aerospace outlook, increasing infrastructure spending, and oil and gas investments," CEO Dave Cote said in the company's earnings release. "These trends, combined with our great positions in good industries, leverage to other macro-trends like safety and security, energy efficiency, and clean energy generation are expected to drive our continued outperformance. 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. Further, we will remain flexible and adhere to our disciplined focus on cost and productivity."
Safety professionals attending this year's National Safety Congress and Expo can check the results of three other large safety manufacturers while they're in Orlando next week. Both 3M and DuPont will report their 3Q financials on Oct. 23, and MSA will report its results the following day.