FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) _ AZZ Inc. (AZZ) on Tuesday reported fiscal second-quarter earnings of $11.2 million.
On a per-share basis, the Fort Worth-based company said it had net income of 43 cents.
The electrical equipment maker posted revenue of $222.8 million in the period.
AZZ expects full-year earnings to be $1.90 to $2.25 per share, with revenue in the range of $930 million to $970 million.
AZZ shares have dropped almost 5 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has climbed slightly more than 5 percent in the last 12 months.
_____ Tom Ferguson, president and chief executive officer of AZZ Inc., commented, “We are very pleased to achieve double-digit, year-over-year growth for both top- and bottom-lines for the second quarter of fiscal year 2019. Driven by strength in both our Energy and Metal Coatings segments, second quarter revenue increased 13.5% and net income increased 14.9%. Overall, our bookings were up 33.6% for the quarter, growing to $253.9 million compared to $190.1 million in the second quarter last year. Our Metal Coatings segment posted record quarterly sales of $116.3 million, an increase of 17.4%. As part of our ongoing efforts, we continue to build on the positive momentum in Energy segment bookings, reinforcing a solid backlog heading into our third quarter, which is traditionally a seasonally strong quarter for outages and turnarounds; and sets the stage for solid performance in the second half of the fiscal year, hence the increase in our FY2019 guidance.
“Metal Coatings segment revenue increased 17.4% from the second quarter of last year. Operating margins were 19.0%, compared to 23.6% in the second quarter of fiscal 2018. Lower margins were driven by a $1.3 million charge taken this quarter to consolidate two galvanizing plants into one in the Gulf Coast region, focus on growing market share, and having peak zinc costs flowing through our kettles.” Ferguson said. “Despite the lingering high cost of zinc and the labor cost headwinds in the galvanizing market, I am cautiously optimistic for continued solid financial performance for fiscal 2019. We believe zinc costs should begin to recede by the fourth quarter of the year, and we have taken the necessary steps to close two underperforming galvanizing plants during the year; one on the Gulf Coast and one in West Virginia. AZZ remains the industry leader in North America with 40 galvanizing plants. As a result of investments to expand our Metal Coating markets, we created new revenue streams from our two most recent Metal Coatings acquisitions – Enhanced Powder Coating and Rogers Brothers Galvanizing. We also continue to gain traction in AZZ’s GalvaBar™ continuous galvanized rebar business.”
This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on AZZ at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AZZ
Additional reporting by FWBP Staff