Woodward Governor Company's Net Income Up 21% for 2008

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--On November 19, Woodward Governor Company (NASDAQ:WGOV) (Fort Collins, Colorado), a global manufacturer of optimization solutions and components of aircraft, industrial engines and turbines, released the company's fourth-quarter and fiscal-year earnings for 2008. While much of the Industrial Manufacturing Industry has seen hard times this year, Woodward set an annual sales record of $1.26 billion, up 21% from $1.04 billion in the 2007 fiscal year. Net earnings for the year were $121.9 million, up 24% from 2007's $98.2 million.

The company manufactures equipment for three business sectors--Aerospace, which accounts for 33% of sales; Power Generation and Processing, which accounts for 49% of sales, and Transportation, which accounts for 18% of sales. Woodward manufactures original manufacturer equipment for such well-known companies as Caterpillar (NYSE:CAT) (Peoria, Illinois), Boeing (NYSE:BA) (Chicago, Illinois), Siemens (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) and Rolls Royce (OTC:RYCEY) (London).

Woodward's manufacturing segments performed as follows for the 2008 fiscal year:

• Turbine Systems--Net sales of $595.8 million, up from $523.8 million in 2007
• Engine Systems--Net sales of $499.3 million, an increase of 10% from $455.2 million in 2007
• Electrical Power Systems--Net sales of $289.3 million, up 60% from $181.4 million in 2007.

Actual earnings for the Electrical Power Systems segment increased 108% from last year.

In a conference call regarding the earnings, Thomas Gandron, Woodward's President and CEO, reported that Woodward has had no cancellations in the company's order book. Gandron cautioned that many of the projects were dependent upon private-sector financing, the lack of which could affect the orders. Much of the company's manufacturing comes from the U.S. Government and the defense industry. Woodward expects orders from this segment to remain relatively the same through 2009. The company expects to increase revenues 11%-19% in 2009.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.