Menomonee Falls-based Actuant Corp. today reported a significant drop in fourth quarter and full-year profits and revenue.
The diversified industrial firm reported fiscal fourth quarter net income of $17.4 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, down from $22.1 million, or 37 cents per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2015.
Restructuring activities including facility closures and layoffs incurred charges of $3.1 million, amounting to 3 cents per share in the fourth quarter, while divestiture gains, including the $10 million sale of Sanlo, added 2 cents.
Revenue totaled $96.3 million in the fourth quarter, down 8 percent from $106.5 million in the same period a year ago. The company attributed 1 percent of the decline to unfavorable foreign currency translation. Acquisitions and divestitures, however, added 4 percent.
Fourth-quarter operating profit was $18.2 million, down from $28.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.
The company attributed the declines to continued low industrial end user demand.
“Fourth quarter sales and adjusted operating results were in line with our expectations,” said Randy Baker, president and chief executive officer of Actuant. “In summary, in this tepid demand environment, our focus remains on tightly managing costs while continuing to invest in our best businesses.”
For the full year, Actuant reported a net loss of $105.2 million, or $1.78 lost per share, compared with net income of $19.9 million, or 32 cents per share, in 2015.
Full-year revenue was $1.1 billion, down from $1.2 billion last year.
Baker also said there isn’t a clear market recovery on the horizon, at least in the first half of 2017.
“We will continue to press ahead where we see self-help opportunities,” he said. “We are actively pursuing sales growth above market rates through share capture and geographic expansion, remain focused on increasing maintenance orders, and are positioning the portfolio to support our best businesses. Through these efforts, and supported by our renewed operational discipline, we expect to translate a lower sales environment into operating profit margin growth in fiscal 2017.”
