Actuant Corp (ATU), designer, manufacturer, and distributor of a range of industrial products, announced on Wednesday a 45.53 percent jump in earnings for the second quarter of financial year 2014.
The company earned $41.39 million or $0.3 a share in the second quarter compared with $28.44 million or 0.35 a share, a year ago.
Analysts on average had predicted profit of $0.32 a share for the latest quarter.
Revenues for the quarter climbed 9.09 percent to $327.77 million from $300.47 million last year.
During the quarter, gross margin contracted by 70 basis points over the previous year period to 37.97 percent.
Total expenses as a percent of revenues increased to 88.11 percent from 87.73 percent in the same period last year, which resulted in contraction of 38 basis points in operating margin to 11.89 percent.
The company disclosed operating income of $38.98 million, up by 5.72 percent from $36.87 million in the prior year period.
Mark E. Goldstein, CEO of Actuant commented, ''We are seeing modestly improving order activity and trends. This, coupled with the progress our businesses continue to make on operating efficiencies and processes, provides optimism for stronger financial performance in the second half of fiscal year 2014. We are maintaining our expectation for full year core sales growth of 3-5% and revenue of $1.410-$1.450 billion. EPS is expected to be at the lower end of our $2.00-2.10 forecast based on our current visibility. We continue to anticipate full year free cash flow of approximately $190 million. We expect third quarter sales to be in the $370-380 million range, with EPS of $0.60-0.65.''
Actuant Corp has generated cash of $3.94 million from operating activities during the quarter down by 85.95 percent or $24.11 million when compared with the last year.
The company has generated 1.20 cents of operating cash flow in every sales dollar during the quarter, down from 9.33 cents for the same period last year.
Actuant Corp has generated cash of $232.51 million from investing activities during the quarter as against cash outgo of $3.84 million in the last year period.
The company has used $191.84 million cash to meet financing activities during the quarter as against cash inflow of $1.02 million in the last year period.
The company has repurchased shares at a total cost of $2.6 million during the quarter.
Actuant Corp's working capital stood at $302.10 million as at Feb. 28, 2014, down by $22.79 million or 7.01 percent from $324.90 million on Feb. 28, 2013.
The company's current ratio moved down to 2.01 as on Feb. 28, 2014 from 2.20 as on Feb. 28, 2013.
As of Feb. 28, 2014, the company's cash and cash equivalents were at $155.02 million, up by $64.19 million from $90.82 million at Feb. 28, 2013.
Shares of Actuant Corp rose by $0.44 or 1.32 percent to close at $33.72 on Wednesday.
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