Honeywell as profit exceeds estimates

New York Honeywell International, the maker of digital flight controls and work boots, posted a first-quarter profit that beat analysts' estimates, and raised its full-year forecast. Net income rose 17 per cent to $823 million (Dh3.02 billion), or $1.04 a share, from $705 million, or 88 cents, a year earlier, the Morris Township, New Jersey-based company said yesterday in a statement. Analysts expected a profit of 99 cents a share, based on the average of 21 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Earnings for 2012 will be in a range of $4.35 to $4.55 a share, compared with a previous forecast of $4.25 to $4.50, Honeywell said. The company is benefiting from a surge in demand for passenger aircraft and energy technology for the oil and gas industry. "We've seen good momentum in the US and our key high growth regions, which is more than offsetting softness in Europe impacting our short-cycle businesses," said Dave Cote, chief executive officer, in the statement. Sales rose 7.3 per cent to $9.31 billion, compared with a $9.15 billion average estimate by analysts. Honeywell narrowed its forecast for 2012 sales to $38 billion to $38.6 billion, from $37.8 billion to $38.9 billion. Honeywell rose 3.6 per cent to $60.09 at 9.56am in New York. The shares had advanced 0.9 per cent in the 12 months through Thursday. Aerospace sales rose 9.4 per cent to $2.95 billion. A 22 per cent increase of aerospace sales to civil original equipment manufacturers, or OEMs, and a 16 per cent gain in replacement-equipment sales helped make up for a 1 per cent decline in defence-aviation sales. Performance Materials & Technologies, which produces chemicals and provides supplies and service to the oil and gas industry, jumped 19 per cent to $1.62 billion. "Performance Materials continues to outperform expectations," said Robert Stallard, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets in New York, in a note Friday.