Tech supplier Crane posts 17pct profit increase in 2Q
U.S.-based Crane Co posted second quarter net income of US$80.7 million, up by 16.6 percent from the prior-year period. The company – an industrial conglomerate that supplies payment and merchandising technology to the gaming industry – reported total net sales of US$851.0 million for the period, a 21.1-percent increase compared to US$702.5 million in the second quarter of 2017.
Operating profit in the three months ended June 30 was US$113.0 million, up 6.8 percent compared to US$105.8 million in the prior-year period.
The firm’s payment and merchandising technology division recorded sales of US$324.3 million in the three months to June 30.
“[Payment and merchandising technology] sales increased US$126 million, or 64 percent, driven primarily by sales from acquisitions, with US$3 million of favourable foreign exchange and approximately flat core sales on challenging comparisons to the prior year,” Crane Co stated in a Monday filing.
Operating profit for the segment increased by 10.0 percent year-on-year to US$46.1 million. “Operating margin declined to 14.2 percent, from 21.1 percent last year, primarily reflecting the impact of the Crane Currency acquisition, and restructuring and integration related charges,” the firm said.
Crane Co completed in January the acquisition of Crane and Co Inc – also known as Crane Currency – for US$800 million. The latter firm is a supplier of micro-optic technology, which can be used for security purposes for specialised products such as printed banknotes.
Crane Co is a supplier of payment and merchandising technology to the gaming sector. The company also provides highly engineered industrial products to customers including companies in the aerospace, electronics, hydrocarbon processing, petrochemicals, chemicals, power generation, automated merchandising and transportation markets.
The company’s overall second quarter results benefitted from a lower effective tax rate compared to the prior year period, due to tax cuts introduced by the Trump administration in the United States. “The effective tax rate in the second quarter was 23.1 percent, down from 30.5 percent in the second quarter of 2017,” stated Crane Co.
“We delivered another quarter of strong operating results,” said Crane Co’s president and chief executive, Max Mitchell, in a prepared statement accompanying the results announcement. He added that the firm was recording “solid demand” in several segments, including payments.
On Monday, the company said it was raising its 2018 earnings guidance, based on its performance in the first six months of the year. Crane Co said it now expects full-year earnings – under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) – to be in a range of US$4.90 to US$5.10 per diluted share, compared to its prior guidance range of US$4.75 to US$4.95 apiece.
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