Manufacturers

Eaton Q4 Sales Down, Acquires Power Distribution Inc.

Eaton Q4 Sales Down, Acquires Power Distribution Inc.

DUBLIN (AP) — Eaton Corp. PLC on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $452 million.

The Dublin-based company said it had profit of $1.09 per share. Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions, were $1.37 per share.

The results did not meet Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.40 per share.

The power management company posted revenue of $5.24 billion in the period, which also missed Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.33 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $2.21 billion, or $5.25 per share. Revenue was reported as $21.39 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, Eaton expects its per-share earnings to range from $1.16 to $1.26. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had forecast adjusted earnings per share of $1.20.

The company expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.60 to $5.90 per share.

Eaton shares have risen nearly 1% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index has increased roughly 1%. The stock has climbed 25% in the last 12 months.

Meanwhile, Eaton announced yesterday that it has agreed to acquire Power Distribution, Inc. (PDI), a leading supplier of mission-critical power distribution, static switching, and power monitoring equipment and services for data centers and industrial and commercial customers. The company is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and had 2019 sales of $125 million.

“PDI’s portfolio is highly complementary to our current offering and will allow us to better serve our data center customers,” said Brian Brickhouse, president, Electrical Sector, Americas region, Eaton. “We have watched the growth of PDI for the last decade and are excited to have them become part of Eaton.”

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the first quarter of this year. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

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Parts of this report supplied by The Associated Press. Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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