Crane’s profit up 13 pct in Q4
U.S.-based Crane Co reported fourth quarter net income of US$56.2 million, up by 13 percent in comparison with the prior-year period.
Crane is a supplier of payment and merchandising technology to the gaming industry. The company also provides highly engineered industrial products to customers in the aerospace, electronics, hydrocarbon processing, petrochemical, chemical, power generation, automated merchandising, transportation and other markets.
The New York Stock Exchange-listed firm posted earnings of US$0.95 per diluted share, compared to US$0.84 per share in the fourth quarter of 2013, it said in a filing on Monday.
Fourth quarter 2014 sales were US$730.7 million, an increase of 7.2 percent in year-on-year terms.
Full year 2014 net income dropped 12 percent from 2013, to US$192.7 million. Earnings per diluted share were US$3.23, compared to US$3.73 in 2013.
Crane said sales for 2015 are expected to be approximately US$2.85 billion, negatively impacted by unfavourable foreign exchange rates. Total sales in 2014 were US$2.92 billion.
Crane’s payment and merchandising technology division recorded sales of US$177.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2014, up by 44 percent in year-on-year terms. Operating profit for the period more than doubled, to US$17.8 million.
The division’s results were positively impacted by the December 2013 acquisition of MEI Conlux Holdings Inc, a maker of automated payment systems.
Pre-merger, MEI claimed one of the world’s largest installed bases of unattended payment systems, handling over 2 billion transactions per week in more than 120 countries.
Crane also announced a regular quarterly dividend of US$0.33 per share for the first quarter of 2015. The dividend is payable on March 10 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 27.
(Updated on January 27, 9.05am)
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