Chart Industries Profit Declines Amid Bad Weather, Cuts Forecast

(RTTNews) - Chart Industries Inc. (GTLS), a manufacturer of highly engineered equipment used in the production, storage and end-use of hydrocarbon and industrial gases, Tuesday said profit for the first quarter declined from the prior year, amid a drop in sales, impacted by weather and customer rationalization from competitive bidding.

Further, the company lowered its outlook for the year, citing weakness in the BioMedical respiratory market as well as delay from a customer.

Net income attributable to the company slipped to $12.0 million or $0.38 per share from $15.55 million or $0.51 per share for the first quarter of 2013.

Earnings would have been $0.41 per share excluding $0.02 per share of acquisition-related costs, as well as a $0.01 per share impact associated with Chart's Convertible Notes.

First quarter 2013 earnings would have been $0.54 per share excluding $0.03 per share of acquisition-related costs.

On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.66 per share. Analysts estimates typically exclude special items.

Net sales decreased 3 percent to $266.24 million from $273.65 million in the comparable period a year ago. Analysts expected revenues of $300.41 million.

Gross margin improved to 29.1 percent from 29 percent..

Energy and Chemicals or E&C segment sales increased 7 percent to $86.1 million, and gross profit margins improved as a result of improved project mix and execution.

Distribution and Storage or D&S segment sales edged up 1 percent to $129.5 million, and gross profit margins declined due to product mix differences.

BioMedical segment sales declined 21 percent to $50.6 million, due to lower sales of respiratory therapy equipment in the U.S. resulting from market restructuring driven by Medicare competitive bidding. Additionally, weather particularly impacted the BioMedical business which shut down U.S. operations multiple days in the quarter.

Sam Thomas, Chart's Chairman, President and CEO, said, "While weather impacted industrial activity across all of our businesses and customer rationalization from competitive bidding continued to impact our BioMedical segment, our Distribution and Storage ("D&S") business saw 12% sequential order growth in China, reaffirming the long-term trend."

Further, the company said that due to continued weakness in the BioMedical respiratory market and the delay of some LNG infrastructure projects by a major oil company customer, annual sales and earnings are now expected to be lower than its previous estimates.

Sales for 2014 are now expected to be in a range of $1.25 to $1.3 billion, and earnings per share are now estimated to be in a range of $3.00 to $3.40 per share, excluding any dilution impact resulting from the notes and acquisition-related costs.

The previous guidance was for $1.3 billion to $1.35 billion in sales and earnings of $3.10 to $3.50 per share, which also excluded any dilution impact resulting from the notes and acquisition-related costs.

Wall Street looks for earnings of $3.28 per share and revenues of $1.32 billion.

GTLS closed down 1.9 percent on Monday at $73.88.