UPDATE 2-H&E Equipment Q4 profit tops estimates
* Q4 adj EPS $0.40 beats estimates of $0.34/shr
* Rev falls 10 pct
* Will not provide 2009 outlook (Recasts, adds details)
March 4 (Reuters) - H&E Equipment Services (HEES.O), which sells and rents out cranes, posted better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by lower expenses, and said it was now targeting executive and other key management incentive compensation to keep costs even lower.
H&E, which also sells and rents out earthmoving equipment and industrial lift trucks, said it expects to further reduce its fleet spending in 2009 as a result of market conditions.
"The continuing credit crisis and virtual inability to access lending is resulting in more and more project cancellations and delays," Chief Executive John Engquist said in a statement.
The company refrained from providing a forecast for 2009 due to credit market conditions and volatile commodity prices.
It cut 4 percent of jobs recently, in addition to a 5 percent reduction in the first quarter of 2008.
For the fourth quarter, the company posted a net loss of $0.6 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with net income of $17.1 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier.
Goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges reduced fourth-quarter net income by 41 cents a share, the company said.
On an adjusted basis, the company earned 40 cents a share.
Revenue fell nearly 10 percent to $261.9 million. Used equipment sales were down 16 percent, while equipment rental revenue fell 9.5 percent. Sales of new equipment were down nearly 13 percent.
Selling, general and administrative expenses fell 10 percent in the fourth quarter, due mainly to lower wages, incentive pay, benefit and employee-related costs.
Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 34 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $270.7 million, according to Reuters Estimates Shares of the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based company closed at $5.79 Tuesday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore; Editing by Amitha Rajan, Anil D'Silva)
