Stanley Black & Decker?EUR??,,????'???s Sales Up, Profits Down

Despite outperforming gross revenue predictions, the toolmaker?EUR??,,????'???s profits slipped due to spending on new assets.

Stanley Black & Decker Inc.'s first-quarter profits shrank despite stronger sales, as restructuring and acquisition spending affected its bottom line, the manufacturer announced last week.

The maker of tools, locks, fasteners and other hardware products reported late last Wednesday that it earned $121.8 million, or 72 cents per share, for the quarter, versus $158.7 million, or 92 cents per share, last year.

Excluding spending charges, the company?EUR??,,????'???s net income amounted to $1.09 per share in the latest quarter, behind the adjusted $1.12 per share that analysts had expected.

The profit results were below Wall Street expectations, despite a 12 percent, $2.65 billion gross revenue increase based on strong sales in its security and industrial businesses. Predicted revenue was around $2.63 billion.

Stanley Black & Decker reiterated its forecast for full-year earnings at $5.75 to $6 per share on an adjusted basis. Analysts agree, forecasting annual earnings of $5.85 per share.

The company acquired Swedish commercial security and monitoring company Niscayah Group AB last September, and is still recouping the costs from that deal. Stanley Works merged with Black & Decker in March 2010.

''We are proud of all we accomplished in the face of a choppy and unpredictable global macroeconomic backdrop,'' Stanley Black & Decker's President and CEO John Lundgren said in a statement.

Shares of the New Britain-based company fell 53 cents to close at $78.49 before the release of the financial statement. The company's shares had been climbing since this fall, when they reached a near-bottom of $47.83. The earnings report sparked a nearly seven percent drop in stock price, closing out the week at $73.41.