Honeywell Profit Jumps 9% as Costs Fall

Honeywell International Inc (NYSE:HON), a U.S. manufacturer of aerospace parts and climate control systems, reported a better-than-expected rise in quarterly profit, helped by cost controls.

Shares of the company, which raised the low end of its full-year earnings forecast, rose 1.4 percent in premarket trading on Friday.

Honeywell said it expects margins to expand further in the second half of 2015.

The company raised its full-year earnings forecast to $6.05-$6.15 per share, from $6.00-$6.15.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of $6.09 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Excluding the impact of the dollar, sales in the company's aerospace business — its largest — rose 3 percent in the second quarter ended June 30, while sales in its automation and controls business rose 4 percent.

Reported sales fell 5 percent in the aerospace business and 1 percent in the automation and controls unit.

Net income attributable to Honeywell rose to $1.20 billion, or $1.51 per share, from $1.10 billion, or $1.38 per share, a year earlier.

Expenses dropped about 7 percent.

Revenue fell about 5 percent to $9.78 billion.

Analysts had expected earnings of $1.49 per share on revenue of $9.74 billion.

Up to Thursday's close of $103.57 on the New York Stock Exchange, the company's shares had risen 3.7 percent this year, compared with a 3.2 percent rise in the S&P 500 index <.SPX>.

(Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)