By Dean Seal
Illinois Tool Works logged a lower profit in the fourth quarter while sales remained flat, due in part to auto worker strikes and inventory pullbacks.
The industrial products and equipment maker posted a profit of $717 million, or $2.38 a share, compared with $907 million, or $2.95 a share, in the same quarter a year ago.
Stripping out the impact of Argentina’s currency devaluation, per-share adjusted earnings were $2.42, a penny above the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue edged up to $3.98 billion from $3.97 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet had been expecting $4.01 billion.
The year-ago quarter’s bottom line included gains from divestitures that weren’t present in the most recently completed quarter, for which the divestitures were a headwind to revenue. Channel inventory reduction and labor strikes in the automotive industry also weighed on revenue in the fourth quarter.
The Glenview, Ill.-based company is expecting $10 to $10.40 a share in earnings for 2024 on annual revenue growth of 2% to 4%. The outlook falls in line with current analyst forecasts.
Write to Dean Seal at [email protected]
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