Actuant's 4Q profit drops 52 percent on slow sales

Actuant's fiscal fourth quarter profit falls 52 percent as sales drop offsets cost cuts

• On 9:18 am EDT, Wednesday September 30, 2009

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Actuant Corp. said Wednesday that its fiscal fourth-quarter profit fell 52 percent as falling sales offset lower costs for the industrial products maker.

For the three months ended Aug. 31, net income plunged to $16.5 million, or 24 cents per share, compared with $34.2 million, or 54 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding one-time items, the Milwaukee-based company earned 18 cents per share.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, earnings per share of 17 cents. Such expectations typically exclude one-time items.

The company used a higher number of shares outstanding to calculate its most recent earnings per share.

Sales fell to $290.1 million from $393.5 million. Analysts expected revenue of $282.9 million.

Selling, administrative and engineering expenses declined to $65.2 million from $83.1 million.

For the full fiscal year, Actuant earned $13.7 million, or 24 cents per share, on revenue of $1.24 billion compared with $122.5 million, or $1.93 per share, on revenue of $1.61 billion.

The company also said it expects earnings in its fiscal first quarter of 2010 to miss Wall Street expectations.

In premarket trading, shares fell 76 cents, or 5 percent, to $14.41.

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