Honeywell's Outlook Sets a Low Bar
Honeywell's Outlook Sets a Low Bar
(Bloomberg Gadfly) -- A good rule thumb for industrial companies right now is to do the exact opposite of what General Electric Co. did for the past few years. Honeywell International Inc. seems to have taken this to heart.
The $119 billion company released its outlook for 2018 on Wednesday, calling for organic revenue growth 2 percent to 4 percent and earnings per share in the $7.55 to $7.80 range. There's little wow factor in those numbers -- at the midpoint, both sets fall short of analysts' expectations in light of a growing global economy and positive trends in Honeywell's primary markets. "Call it prudence or conservatism or whatever you want," Chief Financial Officer Tom Szlosek said when pressed by analysts on aspects of the uninspiring guidance. "We're trying to set up a plan that we are confident in being able to achieve."
Well, isn't that refreshing. Fellow industrial conglomerate GE fired off several ambitious outlooks after deciding to separate out the bulk of GE Capital, and eventually had to walk many of them back. The most memorable is former CEO Jeff Immelt's claim that the company could get to $2 in EPS by 2018, a goal he clung to even as challenges in the company's energy-exposed businesses made that virtually impossible. GE is now targeting $1.00 to $1.07 in 2018 adjusted EPS, under its new financial reporting metrics.
To be fair, Honeywell has historically played it safe with its earnings outlook. More than half of the company is tied to shorter-cycle businesses that can be difficult to predict a year in advance. So Honeywell likes to give itself enough of a buffer that it can meet the range no matter what happens. In 2016, for example, overall revenue ultimately came in below even the company's reduced target, but earnings per share were actually still above the mid-point of Honeywell's initial goal. In 2017, being conservative allowed the company to shift its EPS guidance range toward the high end four times.
Having said that, the company seems to have set a particularly low bar for itself this time around. Honeywell's EPS target includes a 12-cent benefit from a lower share count, reflecting an unexpected $1.5 billion stock buyback in the fourth quarter. Stripping that away from the midpoint of its guidance range implies an even bigger disappointment relative analysts' expectations.
Turning to organic growth, the midpoint of its outlook range implies a slowdown from the 4 percent gain in revenue excluding the impact of currency swings and M&A that it's forecasting for the current year. This is despite the fact that Szlosek said the company's markets are favorable, trends are good and the momentum in its longer-cycle businesses is better than this time last year. Its margin goals were also underwhelming, with Honeywell walking back its target for the fourth quarter due to the dilutive impact of expanding the installed base for the Intelligrated warehouse-automation products it acquired in 2016 and an unplanned plant outage, among other things.
There's nothing wrong with aiming to avoid a GE-like egg-on-the-face scenario. But the key is proving that these numbers are as much of a starting point as management indicated they might be. Honeywell's decision to funnel cash to a buyback versus an acquisition also highlights the challenges it faces in a pricey M&A market. Szlosek said the company has an attractive pipeline of potential deals for all its business units. Hopefully it can capitalize on some of those. Finding some kind of growth-boosting deal will be key to rebuilding the decent chunk of revenue Honeywell will part with when it spins off of its turbochargers and consumer-facing home technologies businesses next year.
A better-safe-than-sorry mantra only works if you don't still wind up sorry.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Brooke Sutherland is a Bloomberg Gadfly columnist covering deals and industrial companies. She previously wrote an M&A column for Bloomberg News.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Beth Williams at bewilliams@bloomberg.net.
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