AZZ Cuts FY14 Outlook Below Street View - Update

(RTTNews) - (Updates the story to include guidance) AZZ Inc. (AZZ), a global provider of electrical products and services and a provider of galvanizing services, lowered its fiscal 2014 outlook below the consensus estimates. The company said the guidance reflects the acquisition of WSI.

The company cut its 2014 earnings guidance to $2.30 - $2.40 per share from the prior estimate of $2.45 - $2.65 per share. Analysts project annual earnings per share of $2.77.

Annual revenues are now expected to be between $760 million and $770 million, lower than $780 million and $810 million projected earlier. Three analysts estimate revenues of $788.52 million for fiscal 2014.

For the third quarter, the company reported earnings of $18.4 million, or $0.72 per share, up from $15.4 million, or $0.60 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.74 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Adjusted earnings for the three-month period were $15.23 million or $0.59 per share. Revenues for the third quarter were $197.8 million compared with $149.7 million for the same quarter last year, an increase of 32.1 percent. Three analysts estimated revenues of $218.63 million for the quarter.

Tom Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of AZZ said, "While we are not satisfied with our third quarter fiscal 2014 performance, we continue to see progress in our assimilation efforts at WSI and NLI, and believe that fiscal 2015 offers numerous opportunities for growth in these businesses... While we expect our markets to remain sluggish during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2014, we are confident of our opportunities in fiscal 2015 and beyond."

AZZ closed Tuesday's trading at $46.94, up $0.20 or 0.43%.