Applied Industrial Technologies Updates Full-year Guidance; Declares Dividend

(RTTNews) - Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT) narrowed full-year guidance range for earnings per share to between $3.10 and $3.20 per share, on a sales increase of 4% to 5%. Previously, the company projected earnings per share in the range of $3.00 to $3.20 on sales in the range of 3.0% to 5.0%.

First-quarter earnings per share rose 22.9% to $0.86 per share, compared with $0.70, prior year. Net sales grew 8.9% to $680.7 million from $624.8 million in the same quarter a year ago. The company said the overall sales increase for the quarter reflects a 0.8% increase from acquisition-related volume and favorable foreign currency translation of 0.7%. Excluding these factors, organic growth was up 9.2%.

The company also announced that its Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.29 per common share, payable on November 30, 2017, to shareholders of record on November 15, 2017.