Apogee Enterprises CEO feels "very good" about FY09
Apogee Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq:APOG) CEO Russell Huffer said he feels “very good” about the glass products maker’s growth prospects for fiscal 2009. Huffer made the comments during a midday conference call.
“We had a strong finish to the fiscal year,” Huffer said. “We are expecting another outstanding year in fiscal 2009. We are entering the year stronger than ever in our architectural segment, which will drive our performance.”
Architectural margins rose to 6.7% during fiscal 2008 from 5.8% during the year-ago period, he said. Huffer said demand for Apogee’s architectural products and services remains healthy.
“We started the new year with our largest architectural backlog ever — $510.9 million,” he said. “Our architectural segment had strong operations serving markets that are using more and more value-added design and energy-efficient products.”
After Wednesday’s closing, Apogee posted fourth-quarter earnings of $14.4 million, or $0.50 per share, up 48% from $9.7 million, or $0.34 per share, a year earlier. Wall Street analysts expected earnings of $0.45 per share.
Quarterly revenue for the three months ended March 1 rose 18% to $243.3 million from $206.2 million during the prior-year period. Analysts, on average, anticipated revenue of $236.1 million for the quarter.
“Project mix, pricing, high-capacity utilization and productivity improvement contributed to our strong performance in improving operating margins,” Huffer said.
Going forward to fiscal 2010, Huffer said Apogee’s long-term goals of 8% annual revenue growth and 20% average earnings growth remain achievable despite mixed industry signals.
“We are positive about the prospects for our business based on the size and mix of our backlog at this point for fiscal 2010 and our bidding activity, as well as the increase in green building and our ability to expand into markets currently underserved by Apogee,” Huffer said.
The CEO said Apogee also stands to benefit from recent environmental building trends.
“We are excited about our growth potential related to accelerating green-building trends. I’m feeling very good about the future prospects and potential for Apogee,” Huffer said. “We have a great business, solid market and backlog, new capacity and our businesses are executing well.”
In afternoon trading, APOG shares are soaring 20.67%, or $3.48, at $20.32. Over the last 52 weeks, shares have ranged between $14.08 and $30.30.
