NEW YORK – Tyco International Ltd. (TYC) on Tuesday reported a 63 percent increase in quarterly profit as strength in its electronics and engineering businesses helped it beat analysts' expectations.
The conglomerate, whose products range from diapers and duct tape to headache treatments and burglar alarms, raised its full-year earnings outlook before items to between $1.61 and $1.63 a share from a previous range of $1.52 to $1.58.
Tyco said net income for the third quarter ended June 30 rose to $923 million, or 43 cents a share, from $567 million, or 27 cents a share, a year earlier.
The Bermuda-based company has spent two years restructuring and straightening out its books after an accounting scandal that led to charges that its former chief executive and chief financial officer looted it.
Tyco reported earnings of 45 cents a share before a 2-cent charge for the early retirement of debt and after-tax charges from restructuring and divesting some of the businesses picked up during a 1990s acquisition spree led by former Chief Executive L. Dennis Kozlowski (search).
Wall Street analysts on average had expected earnings of 41 cents a share before items, according to Reuters Estimates.
Revenue rose 11 percent at $10.5 billion, exceeding the Reuters Estimates (search) figure of $10.35 billion.
Tyco reported 13 percent revenue growth in its electronics business, which makes components for computers, machinery and appliances. Strength in connectors and cable assemblies was partly offset by weak sales of power systems in North America and commercial electronic services.
Revenue in its engineered products and services business, which includes industrial valves, increased 41 percent.
The plastics business suffered from tighter resin prices and lower volumes. Operating margins in the electronics business were also hurt by raw material costs.
For the current fourth quarter, Tyco expects to report earnings of 41 cents to 43 cents a share before items. That compares with analysts' consensus estimate of 43 cents a share.
Tyco said free cash flow -- the amount of cash left over after paying all expenses -- rose to $1.3 billion in the third quarter from $844 million a year earlier. It said it expects full-year free cash flow of $4.7 billion, up from its forecast of $4 billion in May.
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