Shares of Illinois Tool Works Inc. ITW, -0.17% rose 0.4% in premarket trading Friday, after the diversified manufacturing company reported surprise fourth-quarter growth in profit and revenue, and announced plans to boost share repurchases this year. Net income increased to $642 million, or $2.02 a share, from $641 million, or $1.99 a share, in the year-ago period. The company said the results included a per-share gain of 11 cents from divestitures. The FactSet consensus for net earnings per share was a decline to $1.77. Revenue inched up to $3.48 billion from $3.47 billion, while the FactSet consensus was for a decline to $3.32 billion. For 2021, the company expects net EPS of $7.60 to $8.00, surrounding the FactSet consensus of $7.69. The company plans to buy back about $1 billion worth of its stock in 2021, after repurchasing $706 million worth of shares in 2020. The stock has lost 5.7% over the past three months through Thursday, while the S&P 500 SPX, +1.09% has gained 10.3%.
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