Milwaukee-based Rexnord Corp. reported fiscal 2016 first quarter net income of $21.2 million, or 20 cents per share, up from $12 million, or 11 cents per share, in the first quarter of 2015.
The company had a lower provision for income taxes in the quarter than in the first quarter of 2015, when Rexnord had a one-time tax expense related to a change in the U.S. income tax entity classification of a foreign subsidiary.
The global process and motion control and water management manufacturing company reported operating income of $53.2 million, down from $56.9 million in the same period a year ago.
Revenue totaled $485.1 million in the quarter, down from $503.6 million in the first quarter of 2015.
Process & Motion Control segment core sales were down 7 percent, which the company attributed to a broadly weak economic environment in several of its process industry end markets.
Water Management segment sales increased 4 percent year-over-year, however, due to favorable shipment timing and solid growth in the Zurn business. The company recently announced its plan to establish the Zurn headquarters to the Reed Street Yards Water Technology Park in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood.
“Our first quarter operating results were slightly better than we had guided, despite the uneven global market environment and significant de-stocking in our industrial distribution channels,” said Todd Adams, president and chief executive officer. “We believe our Water Management and aerospace end-markets will continue to be strong over the balance of the year, and we anticipate the ongoing weak demand from our process industry customers to continue. We remain focused on executing our strategies to drive above-market growth, expand margins, and create shareholder value. During the quarter, we launched the initial actions of our supply chain optimization and footprint repositioning initiative that was announced last quarter and which is planned to deliver $30 million of annual cost savings as we exit our fiscal 2017. We also used $40 million for share repurchases during the quarter, sufficient to achieve our objective of offsetting potential shareholder dilution from employee compensation plans.”
