AZZ Q4 Profit Drops Amid Higher Costs, Backs Full Year Outlook - Update

(RTTNews) - AZZ Inc. (AZZ), a provider of electrical products and services, Friday said profit for the fourth quarter declined from the prior year, amid higher costs and expenses, despite increased revenues that missed estimates. The firm backed its full year forecast.

Net income declined to $10.24 million or $0.40 per share from $13.23 million or $0.52 per share last year.

The company recorded a loss on sales or insurance settlement of property, plant and equipment in the quarter of $217 thousand, while it reported a gain of $2.51 million last year.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter was $0.42 per share, while it totaled $0.57 per share in the previous year.

On average, five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings per share of $0.42 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues climbed 28.9 percent to $181.01 million from $140.39 million last year. Analysts expected revenue of $191.97 million for the quarter.

Revenues for the Electrical and Industrial Products and Services Segment increased 67.1 percent to $103.5 million while the Galvanizing Service Segment reported revenues of $77.5 million, a marginal decline from the previous year.

Tom Ferguson, president and CEO of AZZ Incorporated, said, "...our markets during the fourth quarter did remain sluggish and our businesses were impacted by more weather delays than expected. We were able to pull in some projects at WSI and to catch up on some of the lost days within Galvanizing."

Costs and expenses jumped to $164.23 million from $119.88 million in the previous year, amid sharply higher cost of sales. Products backlog at the end of the quarter was $229.9 million, compared to $221.7 million at the end of last year.

The company continues to expect fiscal 2015 gross revenues to be in the range of $850 million to $900 million. Earnings are anticipated to be in the range of $2.40 and $2.80 per share. Analysts expect the company to report fiscal 2015 earnings per share of $2.65 on revenue of $836.64 million.

The company announced that the Board, at its regularly scheduled quarterly meeting, declared a $0.14 per share cash dividend on common stock outstanding.

AZZ closed up 0.6 percent on Thursday at $44.34.