Cintas Profit Tops Estimate

(RTTNews) - Cintas Corp (CTAS), a provider of corporate identity uniforms, Thursday reported an increase in second-quarter profit, helped by gains from discontinued operations, while revenues were essentially unchanged from a year ago.

The company lifted its earnings and sales outlook for 2015, and its shares gained 3 percent in after-hours trade on the Nasdaq.

Cintas, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, reported second-quarter net earnings of $120.4 million or $1.00 per share compared with $84.9 million or $0.70 per share last year.

Results for the recent quarter included a gain of acted by $0.14 per share from discontinued operations, excluding which, earnings would have been $0.86 per share.

Revenues for the quarter were almost unchanged from a year ago at $1.12 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.78 per share on revenues of $1.11 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

For the full year 2015, the company now expects adjusted earnings of $3.20 to $3.25 per share on revenues of $4.45 billion to $4.50 billion. It earlier expected earnings of $3.05 to $3.14 per share per share on revenues of $4.40 billion to $4.48 billion.

Analysts expect earnings of $3.15 per share on revenues of $4.46 billion for the year.

CTAS closed Thursday at $74.49, up $1.65 or 2.27%, on a volume of 1.6 million shares. In after hours, the stock gained $2.36 or 3.17%.