Honeywell Cuts Revenue Outlook

Honeywell International Inc. raised the bottom end of its full-year earnings outlook on Friday, but cut its revenue outlook as it maintains its cautious outlook on the global economy.

For the year, Honeywell now expects to post per-share earnings of $6.00 a share to $6.15 a share, compared with its previous guidance of $5.95 a share to $6.15 a share. The company lowered its revenue forecast to $39 billion to $39.6 billion from its previous guidance of $40.5 billion to $41.1 billion.

Chief Executive Dave Cote said the company saw momentum in the latest quarter, but reiterated that the company will continue to plan conservatively in light of the global economy.

Honeywell's businesses include aviation components, chemicals, and automation and control systems.

Meanwhile, Honeywell's pace of mergers and acquisitions has slowed considerably over the past year, and company executives say they have been searching for deals amid an overheated market. The company has a target of $10 billion in M&A activity through 2018.

For the quarter ended March 31, the company posted a profit of $1.12 billion, or $1.41 a share, up from $1.02 billion, or $1.28 a share year earlier.

The company had forecast earnings of $1.36 to $1.41 a share.

Revenue fell 4.8% to $9.2 billion, missing the $9.48 billion analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected.

The company has sought to improve margins by realigning its business to focus on its aerospace, automation and control, and its high-tech materials operations.

In the latest quarter, segment margin improved to 18.7% from 16.5% a year ago.

The automation and control-systems business, which supplies the commercial-construction industry, posted a sales decline of 3% to $3.26 billion. Aerospace sales fell 6.3% to $3.61 billion. Performance materials and technologies sales fell 5% to $2.34 billion.

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at [e-mail]

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires