Earnings - 3rd April 2009

5:30AM AZZ Inc. beats by $0.02, misses on revs; reiterates FY10 EPS in-line, guides revs below consensus (AZZ) 27.1 : Reports Q4 (Feb) earnings of $0.81 per share, $0.02 better than the First Call consensus of $0.79; revenues rose 30.9% year/year to $100.3 mln vs the $112.1 mln consensus. Co issues mixed guidance for FY10, sees EPS of $2.75-2.95, unchanged from previous guidance range, vs. $2.93 consensus; sees FY10 revs of $395.0-415.0 mln (previous range $420.0-440.0 mln), vs. $433.62 mln consensus. Backlog at the end of Q408 was $174.8 mln, compared to $195.2 mln in Q308 and $134.9 mln of Q407. Incoming orders for Q408 increased 24% when compared to Q407. Co doesn't anticipate that backlog will increase in Q209 or recover to the record setting level of Q309 until they see improvement in markets. AZZ remains optimistic that they will see some leveling of backlog after the second quarter and a modest recovery as we enter FY11.