BELLEVUE (dpa-AFX) - Truckmaker PACCAR Inc. (PCAR) on Tuesday reported a significant increase in profit for the first quarter, helped by increased truck sales in North America and growth in financial services assets and aftermarket revenues.
Net income surged to $327.3 million or $0.91 per share from $193.3 million or $0.53 per share reported last year. On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.78 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net sales and financial services revenues climbed to $4.78 billion from $3.28 billion. Analysts expected revenues of $4.11 billion for the quarter.
PACCAR Financial Services generated $261.4 million in the quarter, up from $241.0 million in the prior year, owing to lower borrowing costs and growth in portfolio balances.
Geographically, sales in United States and Canada surged 84 percent to $2.93 billion. Sales weakened in Europe.
PACCAR plans to expand its global network of 15 strategically located parts distribution centers or PDCs in 2012. PACCAR plans to build a new $40 million, 280,000-square-foot PDC in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The PDCs in Madrid, Spain and Lancaster, Pennsylvania will increase their capacity with the addition of a combined 100,000 square feet of warehouse, the company said.
The stock closed on Monday at $41.95, down from the prior close of $42.22, on a volume of 3.86 million shares. The stock is up 2.5 percent in pre-market trading.
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