Curtiss Wright Corporation (CW) has reported 1.77 percent fall in profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The company has earned $68.62 million, or $1.53 a share in the quarter, compared with $69.85 million, or $1.51 a share for the same period last year.     

Revenue during the quarter dropped 3.94 percent to $565.57 million from $588.76 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 119 basis points over the previous year period to 36.91 percent. Total expenses were 81.23 percent of quarterly revenues, down from 81.57 percent for the same period last year. This has led to an improvement of 34 basis points in operating margin to 18.77 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $106.17 million, compared with $108.53 million in the previous year period.

"We concluded the year with a solid fourth quarter performance, reporting a 20% increase in operating income on essentially flat sales, when compared with our 2015 pro forma results," said David C. Adams, chairman and chief executive officer of Curtiss-Wright Corporation. "Further, we produced very strong free cash flow driven by a significant reduction in working capital, and robust operating margin of 18.8% that was driven by increased profitability on our defense electronics products, solid margins on the AP1000 program, and the benefit of our ongoing margin improvement initiatives."

For fiscal year 2017, Curtiss Wright Corporation expects revenue to be in the range of $2,170 million to $2,210 million.  The company expects operating income to be in the range of $316 million to $325 million, the company projects diluted earnings per share to be in the range of $4.30 to $4.40.