(Reuters) – Industrial parts provider W.W. Grainger beat analysts’ expectations for third-quarter profit on Wednesday as demand from its U.S. industrial clients for maintenance and repair equipment remained resilient.
The company sells safety, maintenance and repair equipment to North American and Japanese industrial clients and domestic consumers.
Daily sales at the company’s High-Touch Solutions segment, which caters to manufacturing, warehousing and metalworking industries in North America, were up 8.7% year-on-year.
Spending on manufacturing and construction projects in the U.S. has remained solid in the quarter amid efforts by the Biden administration to bring strategically important semiconductor manufacturing back to the United States.
The Illinois-based company reported a quarterly profit of $9.43 per share, compared with analysts’ average estimates of $8.93 per share, as per LSEG data.
It also benefited from customer acquisitions in its Japan-based B2B e-commerce division, MonotaRO, but these gains were offset by lower sales in its U.S.-based B2C e-commerce platform, Zoro.
Total quarterly revenue was in line with analysts’ estimates at about $4.2 billion, up 6.7% from a year earlier.
However, the company narrowed its full-year sales forecast and now expects net sales of $16.4 to $16.6 billion, compared with its previous forecast of $16.4 to $16.8 billion.
(Reporting by Aishwarya Jain; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
