CLEVELAND (AP) — Manufacturing parts and services provider Applied Industrial Technologies Inc. said Wednesday its fiscal second-quarter profit fell slightly, pulled down by executive-related expenses.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the Cleveland-based company earned $20.9 million, or 49 cents per share, down from $21.2 million, or 49 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
The recent quarter's results included one-time costs of 7 cents per share related to the CEO transition and freezing the company's supplemental executive retirement benefits plan. Excluding those items, Applied Technologies posted adjusted profit of 56 cents per share.
Revenue rose 7.7 percent to $570.4 million from $529.5 million.
Analysts, on average, expected profit of 54 cents per share on $569.8 million in revenue, according to FactSet.
Company officials said freezing the retirement plan will help bring its executive compensation in line with shareholder interests and reduce its future executive compensation costs.
The company said it was encouraged by the second-quarter results and said it still expects to post a fiscal-year profit of $2.40 to $2.55 per share on $2.35 billion to $2.45 billion in sales.
Analysts polled by FactSet expect a profit of $2.41 per share on $2.34 billion in sales.
Separately, Applied Industrial said its board approved the increase of its quarterly dividend by 2 cents to 21 cents.
The new dividend, which represents an increase of 11 percent over the company's previous dividend, will be paid on Feb. 29 to shareholders of record as of Feb. 15.
In afternoon trading, Applied Industrial shares dropped $2.26, or 5.7 percent, to $37.51.
