Hughes More Than Doubles Fourth-Quarter Profit

Hughes Supply Inc., Orlando, more than doubled its fourth-quarter profit as sales and acquisitions lifted its bottom line, the company said.

Quarterly income surged to $20.7 million from $9.4 million a year ago. Sales totaled $1.12 billion, up 41 percent from $796 million a year earlier.

Hughes said sales grew sharply across all of its segments, led by water and sewer products. Sales in its utilities segment more than doubled to $173.3 million.

Full-year earnings were $123.7 million, or $1.95 per share, more than twice the income of $57.7 million, or $1.23 per share, in 2003. Net sales amounted to $4.42 billion, up 36 percent from $3.25 billion last year.

Hughes pegged its first-quarter net income at $33 million to $35 million, with earnings coming in at the low end of 50 cents to 53 cents per share. Revenue is projected to grow at a midpoint of 25 percent to a range of about $1.24 billion to $1.26 billion. In the prior year, Hughes earned 49 cents per share on sales of $992.8 million.

The company also backed views for high single-digit organic sales growth in 2006 and estimates for earnings to grow by 10 percent to 20 percent.