Air Products & Chemicals Profit Increases

By Austen Hufford 

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. reported better-than-expected profit on Friday and an upbeat earnings forecast, despite a decline in sales, as the industrial gas company readies to spin-off its materials technologies business.

Operating margin for the quarter reached 20.9%, up from 16.8% during the same period last year.

For the current quarter, Air Products expects adjusted per-share earnings of between $1.78 and $1.83. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings per share of $1.75.

Air Products kept its yearly earnings forecast unchanged.

Profit rose to $363.6 million from $324.6 million a year prior. In the most recent quarter, the first of the 2016 fiscal year, the company's per-share earnings rose to $1.67 from $1.50. On an adjusted basis, per-share earnings increased to $1.78 from $1.55.

Revenue declined 8% to $2.36 billion, as the company faced currency headwinds and global slowdown in industrial markets.

The company's cost of sales fell more than revenue, decreasing 13% to $1.6 billion, as its selling and administrative expenses decreased 18%.

Industrial gas sales decreased in the Americas and the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. In Asia, sales climbed 3.6%. Sales in the company's materials segment fell 6.5% to $490 million.

The company said it intends to spin-off its materials technologies business, to be known as Versum Materials, prior to September.

Write to Austen Hufford at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 29, 2016 06:57 ET (11:57 GMT)

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