GGRAsia – Crane Co 3Q profit up 42pct on upped demand: CEO

Crane Co 3Q profit up 42pct on upped demand: CEO

Oct 23, 2018 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, World

Crane Co, a United States-based industrial products conglomerate that sells payment processing technology to the financial sector including casinos, saw its third-quarter group profit jump 42.2 percent.

Such profit for the three months to September 30 was US$97.0 million, compared to US$68.2 million in the prior-year period.

“With demand solid across most of our major end-markets, we continue to focus on positioning Crane for the future,” said Max Mitchell, Crane’s president and chief executive, in prepared comments issued with results filed to Nasdaq on Monday.

In the payment and technologies merchandising segment, which included cash handling technology for casinos, sales rose 73.6 percent to US$327.4 million, compared to US$188.6 million in third-quarter 2017.

But profit margin in that segment fell 4.1 percentage points, to 17.5 percent, compared to 21.6 percent in the prior-year period.

Group-wide quarterly sales were a record US$855.8 million, an increase of 23.0 percent compared to US$695.9 million in the third quarter of 2017.

In July Crane had declared a regular quarterly dividend of US$0.35 per share for the third quarter. The dividend was payable on September 10, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on August 31.

On Monday the group declared a fourth-quarter dividend of US$0.35 per share, payable on December 10 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 30.

Crane Co also revised higher its guidance for earnings per share for full-year 2018. The firm now expects earnings – excluding special items – to range between US$5.80 to US$5.90 per share, compared to the prior range of US$5.60 to US$5.80 per share.

Full-year 2018 free cash flow is now expected to be in a range of US$260 million to US$290 million, compared to the prior forecast of between US$250 million and US$280 million, according to the firm’s latest filing.

As of September 30, the company was a defendant in cases filed in numerous U.S. state and federal courts alleging injury or death as a result of past exposure to asbestos. There were 29,323 pending claims as of September 30, according to Monday’s quarterly results filing.