Parker-Hannifin eyes closing multiple acquisitions before year-end

By Aleesia Forni

Columbus, Ohio, Jan. 20 - Parker-Hannifin Corp. is at various stages in the acquisition process with multiple transactions.

"As it is right now, there is a number that we are in negotiations with and hopefully some of these will close before the end of the year," chief executive officer Donald Washkewicz said during the company's second-quarter 2012 earnings conference call. "So that would be a positive going forward."

"So I think right now, we'd like to do some more deals. We have some in the pipeline. We think we will get some more to the finish line here in the near term."

Aside from these acquisitions, the Cleveland-based manufacturer of motion and control technologies expects to use its cash for dividends and share repurchases.

"We want to maintain a yield on the dividend at least where we've been tracking here, if not better, over time and gradually we want to bring the yield up to the median of our peers," Washkewicz added.

"We'll do it over time, but we'll gradually increase that yield up to the median of our peer group over time, and we'll have an annual increase in the dividend every year as long as I'm around, so I can guarantee you that."

The company's balance sheet "remains solid" with more than $488 million cash on the balance sheet at year-end and a debt to total capitalization ratio of 25.2%.

"So obviously, the company has a lot of capacity to grow the business moving forward," Washkewicz added.

Parker-Hannifin's cash flow from operations "remains strong" at $254 million or 8.2% of sales.

"We certainly like that [cash flow] number," Washkewicz said.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.