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Two earnings reports from Buy List stocks to pass along.

Amphenol (APH) had a great report but the stock is pulling back this morning. For Q4, APH earned 55 cents a share, three cents more than the Street was expecting. Last year, APH made 43 cents a share for Q4. Even better, the company gave good guidance going forward:

For 2008, the company expects a profit between $2.18 and $2.25 per share on revenue between $3.1 billion and $3.18 billion. Last year, profit reached $353.2 million, or $1.94 per share, and sales hit $2.85 billion.

Analysts project earnings of $2.22 and revenue at $3.13 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

"We are cautiously optimistic (Yuck! I hate the phrase! – EE) about continuing improvement in the short term and very confident about the long term outlook for continued growth and profitability," the company said in a statement.

For the current quarter, Amphenol anticipates net income of 50 cents to 52 cents per share and revenue between $740 million and $755 million.

Analysts expect a profit of 51 cents per share and revenue of $741 million.

Personally, I was looking for a little better guidance than what we got. Although, APH had a pretty strong run from August to December, so maybe it’s simply profit-taking today. Assuming $2.22 a share for 2008, that’s a P/E of 16.5, which isn’t bad for APH.

After the closing bell yesterday, Clarcor (CLC) reported earnings of 53 cents a share.

For the quarter ended Dec. 1, Clarcor earned $26.7 million, or 53 cents per share, compared with $26.7 million, or 52 cents per share, for the same quarter in 2006. The company had fewer shares outstanding in the recent period.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected income of 51 cents per share.

Sales rose 2.4 percent to $238.3 million from $232.6 million in the year-ago period.

Operating margins were 16.8 percent in both periods. Clarcor said foreign currency fluctuations improved the recent quarter's sales by $6 million.

For the full year, Clarcor earned $90.7 million, or $1.78 per share, compared with $82.7 million, or $1.59 per share, for 2006. Sales rose to $921.2 million from $904.3 million the year before.

The company also said that it expects 2008 EPS of $1.85 to $2.05 (sheesh, kinda wide range). The Street consensus is for $1.92.

Here's a spreadsheet of Clarcor's results for the past few years.

Posted by edelfenbein at January 17, 2008 11:20 AM