AMP chairman comments on outlook at the International Corporate Forum Conference.HARRISBURG Harrisburg, city (1990 pop. 52,376), state capital and seat of Dauphin co., SE Pa., on the Susquehanna River; settled c.1710 by John Harris, who established a trading post and operated a ferry there; inc. 1791. , Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 1996--James A. Marley commented on outlook at the International Corporate Forum Conference in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Wednesday. The slowdown For articles with similar titles, see Slow Down (disambiguation). A slowdown is an industrial action in which employees perform their duties but seek to reduce productivity or efficiency in their performance of these duties. in economic activity that began the middle of last year is still affecting our business. In January we said that because of this, our first half growth would be at a modest, single-digit rate. So it should be no surprise that our first quarter sales are estimated to be up only slightly from the $1.3 billion of the year-earlier and prior quarters. This sales growth of probably only a few percent reflects the slower growth in virtually all our markets in the U.S. and internationally. Nearly half our sales are to the transportation/electrical and computer/office equipment markets. First quarter earnings are expected to reflect this slow sales growth -- better than the 48 cents of a year ago but similar to the 52 cents in the fourth quarter of 1995. This is consistent with our comments on our January conference call. Product price erosion continues to make margin improvement difficult when sales growth is slow. We continue to expect second quarter and second half sales and earnings to be higher if economic and market growth picks up. On this assumption of favorable fa·vor·a·ble adj. 1. Advantageous; helpful: favorable winds. 2. Encouraging; propitious: a favorable diagnosis. 3. economic, market, and currency conditions, we are still fairly comfortable with analyst consensus estimates of $2.40-$2.50 -- up 12-15 percent from $2.15/share last year before the 19 cents merger effects. Most of these estimates are in the lower half of this range. We continue to expect earnings to rise more than sales this year because of improving margins at M/A-COM, our wireless communications wireless communications System using radio-frequency, infrared, microwave, or other types of electromagnetic or acoustic waves in place of wires, cables, or fibre optics to transmit signals or data. components subsidiary, and the diminishing di·min·ish v. di·min·ished, di·min·ish·ing, di·min·ish·es v.tr. 1. a. To make smaller or less or to cause to appear so. b. loss in our Global Interconnect (1) To attach one device to another. (2) A physical port (plug, socket) or wireless port (transmitter, receiver) used to attach one device to another. Systems Business area where most of our diversification Diversification A risk management technique that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. It is designed to minimize the impact of any one security on overall portfolio performance. Notes: Diversification is possibly the greatest way to reduce the risk. efforts are concentrated. Both are growing significantly faster than our core connector business. Harrisburg-based AMP Inc. is the world's leading producer of electrical/electronic connection devices. It has 40,800 employees in 212 facilities in the U.S. and 39 other countries. AMP stock is listed on the New York, Pacific and other regional stock exchanges (Symbol -- "AMP"). Statements in this news release that are not strictly historical are "forward-looking" statements which should be considered as subject to the many uncertainties that exist in the company's operations and business environment. These uncertainties, which include economic and currency conditions, market demand and pricing, competitive and cost factors, and the like, are set forth in the AMP 10-K report to be filed by the end of this month. CONTACT: AMP Inc., Harrisburg William Oakland, 717/780-6371 |
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