Illinois Tool Works Inc., socked by a 24 percent revenue drop off and a damaging accounting charge, turned in a hefty first-quarter net loss Thursday — but its shares surged because underlying results topped analyst forecasts.
Shares of the Glenview-based manufacturer rose $1.99, or 6.4 percent, at $33.15.
ITW’s results have been under pressure for several quarters because of the company’s substantial exposure to the troubled automotive and housing markets. With North American auto production down sharply from a year ago and international car output only slightly better, the company faced “historic challenges,” said Chairman and Chief Executive David Speer.
In the latest quarter, ITW had a net loss of $39.4 million, or 8 cents per diluted share, down dramatically from net income a year earlier of $303.6 million, or 57 cents a share.
But excluding a $90 million charge to write down goodwill and a one-time $28 million tax charge, the company said, earnings from continuing operations were 17 cents a share. That’s down 76 percent from the year-ago 70 cents, but better than the 13 cents analysts expected..
Revenues, crimped by unfavorable foreign-exchange translation as well as weak end markets, dropped 24 percent, to $2.91 billion from $3.82 billion a year go.
Baxter International Inc.: The Deerfield-based medical products giant, helped by what it called “strong underlying fundamentals,” turned in first-quarter earnings that were up 20 percent from the year-ago quarter.
It was a “solid” profit performance helped by expanding margins, said Morningstar’s Julie Stralow.
Excluding one-time charges that dampened the year-ago quarter, Baxter’s earnings were up 9 percent and outperformed analyst forecasts by a penny per share.
Results were driven by growth in the company’s flagship bioscience segment, which provides plasma-based treatments for hemophilia and immune disorders and is relatively safe from economic swings.
Baxter’s overall sales, pinched by the strengthening U.S. dollar, declined 2 percent, to $2.82 billion from $2.88 billion. On a currency-neutral basis sales were up 6 percent.
Baxter’s net income was $516 million, or 83 cents a diluted share, compared with earnings in the year-ago quarter, excluding unusual items, of $474 million, or 74 cents a share.
Baxter shares closed up $1.70, or 3.5 percent, at $50.95.
———-
jpmiller@tribune.com
