AZZ Skids on Lowered Guidance

AZZ Inc. (AZZ - Snapshot Report) cut its fiscal 2010 earnings guidance today even though its first-quarter profit surpassed analysts' expectations.

Shares slipped about 5% today.

Continued declines in the number of new orders led AZZ to reduce its forecast for the current fiscal year, which now ranges between $2.70 and $2.90 per share. Earlier in April, it saw earnings per share of $2.75 to $2.95.

The company sees full-year revenue of $370 million to $390 million.

Analysts had been expecting a profit of $2.86 per share for the fiscal year ending in February 2010, which remained constant for the past 60 days.

In its first quarter, the company earned 80 cents per share, which exceeded the consensus by 16 cents. However, EPS results fell 2 cents short of the year-ago level. Net sales declined 5% to $95.5 million.

This Zacks #3 Rank ("Hold") company is trading on volume of 166,000 shares, against the daily average of 128,172.