Emerson
Electric’s Sales Report
Emerson’s monthly filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on
sales trends reported company-wide sales of 0 to +5% for the three months
ending in September, +5% for the three months ending in October, and a 0% sales
gain for the three months ending in November.
For the
Industrial Automation segment, in the same months, Emerson reported +5%, 0 to
+5%, and 0 to +5%. The company said Industrial Automation saw “favorable trends
in the electrical distribution and ultrasonic welding business…partially offset
by weakness in the wind and solar energy business, as governments around the
world reduce renewable energy subsidies. Currency exchange rates deducted 2
percentage points.”
Two of
Emerson’s five segments, Network Power and Climate Technologies posted negative
sales results for the November three-month period. Emerson’s numbers in 2011
generally have been uniformly positive; see for example, this SEC filing on March-April-May results.
Emerson’s
stock (symbol EMR), which ended November at $52.25, closed Friday, Dec. 23, at
$46.29, a decline of more than 11%. In the same weeks, the S&P 500 index
increased by nearly 1.5%.
Purchases
and Acquisitions
Belden
buys: Belden
made an all-cash offer to acquire the Canadian company RuggedCom Inc. A news
release said the total purchase price would be 280 million Canadian; the
exchange rate recently has seen $1 U.S equal to 1.02 or 1.03 Canadian. RuggedCom
is said to be “a global leader in signal transmission solutions for
mission-critical applications.” On Dec. 16, the price of RuggedCom stock, as
traded in Canada, was $13.61, putting the Belden offer at an 87% premium.
Eaton
acquires: Eaton
Corporation has agreed to acquire medium voltage switchgear manufacturer E.A.
Pedersen Company. Details of the deal were not released and the agreement is
subject to closing conditions. E.A. Pedersen, which does business as Pedersen
Power Products, is expected to have sales of about $37 million this year;
Eaton’s 2010 sales came in at $13.7 billion. E.A. Pedersen currently has about
150 employees.
In a company
news release, Rich Stinson, Eaton’s president, Power Distribution,
Electrical Sector for the Americas Region, said, “The acquisition of Pedersen
Power Products will strengthen Eaton’s medium voltage assembly business by
adding important utility-oriented power products and custom engineering
capabilities for our U.S. markets.”
Schneider
Electric acquires: Schneider Electric added to its “data center suite” with the acquisition of
Viridity’s EnergyCenter 2.0 platform, according to a GreenBiz.com blog.
Recent
Honors
Beacon
Power: A 20MW
flywheel energy storage plant in Stephentown, N.Y. has won the 2011 Technology
Award from the Energy Institute of the UK. Separately, Beacon Power’s stock was
delisted by NASDAQ; it now trades on the “pink sheets.”
CommScope: The
company’s LxS-16016 wideband edge QAM was the only one of more than 40 products
to receive a perfect score from Broadband Technology Report in the 2011
“Diamond Technology Reviews.”
Cooper
Industries: The
Patent Board recently named the company the Top Innovator on its Industrial
Components & Fixtures Scorecard.
Echelon
Corp. took
home an Export Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
GE: The data
center at the GE’s Appliance Park headquarters in Lexington, Ky. was awarded
LEED Platinum.
Honeywell: Based on a survey of homeowners,
Frost & Sullivan named Honeywell as “Overall Best Brand of Programmable Thermostats”
in the United States.
Leviton: With 560
products submitted to Building Operating Management magazine for its
annual “Top Products Award” competition, Leviton’s SectorFlex Intelligent
Digital Lighting Control System was named a winner. It’s the third year in a
row that Leviton has had a product honored by the magazine’s readers.
Worldwide
Power Products: Houston-based maker of power generation equipment, Worldwide Power Products,
was named one of “America’s Most Promising Companies” by Forbes magazine.
The company ranked No.86 out of 100.
WAC
Lighting’s Sol
OLED (organic light-emitting diode) chandelier won a Product Innovation Award
from Architectural Products magazine.
Charitable
Efforts
Emerson
Electric provided a $1 million grant to The Magic House, a children’s museum
in the St. Louis area, to make it possible for them to “continue its popular
Free Family Nights program,” according to the St. Louis Business Journal.
Schneider
Electric representatives recently marked the groundbreaking of the fourth Habitat for Humanity
home sponsored by the company in Oconee County, S.C., according to the Anderson
Independent-Mail.
Financial
Notes
Atkore
International Holdings, owned by Clayton Dubilier & Rice, having been sold off by Tyco
International, revealed its FY2011 results—net sales up 15% to $1.65 billion.
The
company’s Electrical and Infrastructure operation had $934 million in sales, up
18%. Of that $143 million year-over-year sales increase, the company said in a news
release, $88 million “is related to higher average selling prices for both
electrical steel conduit and armored and metal-clad cable products in North
America.”
Brady
Corp:. Q1 of
FY2012 ended for Brady Corp. on Oct. 31 with sales up 6.09%, to $349.5 million.
Organic sales rose 5.7% in the Americas region. In the quarter, Brady
repurchased $12.3 million of its stock.
Communications
Systems: The
yield on Communications Systems’ stock, plus insider buying, earned notice from
DividendChannel.com (in a posting to Forbes.com). The dividend yield, 4.49% at
the time, was down to 4.40% by Dec. 23.
Cooper
Industries’ stock (symbol CBE) was recently added by Standard & Poor’s to the S&P
500 index.
© 2012 The Electrical Distributor. All rights reserved.