Morris Township, NJ, July 20--Honeywell International Inc. said its quarterly earnings fell 15 percent after the company incurred a tax charge for the repatriation of $2.7 billion in foreign earnings.
The company reported second-quarter net profit dropped to $306 million, or 36 cents per share, from $361 million, or 42 cents per share a year earlier.
Excluding the charge and a gain from discontinued operations, Honeywell earned 51 cents a share, in line with Wall Street estimates. Sales rose 10 percent to $7.03 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected revenue of $6.97 billion.
The company increased its previously announced 2005 sales guidance by $400 million to $27.8 billion to $28.0 billion and earnings per share guidance (excluding the above mentioned tax charge) 10 cents to $2.05 - $2.15 ($1.87 - $1.97 per share on a reported basis). Free cash flow guidance was increased $100 million to $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion (cash flow from operations of $2.5 billion - $2.6 billion).
In the Specialty Materials sector, sales were down 12% compared with the second quarter of 2004, due to the divested Performance Fibers and Industrial Wax businesses, offset by 1% organic sales growth related to pricing actions and demand for proprietary fluorines technology.
Segment margins were 9.8% compared with 5.7% a year ago, with price increases and productivity actions more than offsetting higher raw material costs.
