What happened
Specialty equipment manufacturer Chart Industries (GTLS 0.48%) ended the week in style, posting solid first-quarter earnings that brought investors into its stock. The company's shares rose nearly 9% on the day, in sharp contrast to the 3.6% swoon of the S&P 500 index.
So what
Chart Industries' sales topped $354 million, a new first-quarter record for the company and up a muscular 23% from the year-ago period. That result came on the back of a 53% pop in total orders to nearly $637 million, another first-quarter record.
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Meanwhile, non-GAAP (adjusted) net income tumbled 27% to just over $18 million, or $0.65 per share. Yet that was good enough to beat analysts' average estimate of $0.57 per share. Sales, despite the notable increase, didn't quite meet the collective prognosticator expectation of just over $360 million.
Chart Industries' surge in sales was due in no small part to significant demand for products in its liquefied natural gas (LNG) segment. That was linked to Russia's war in Ukraine and the intensified supply issues it has created in the oil market, which made LNG suddenly more compelling for an energy-hungry world.
Now what
That was a key element in Chart Industries' updated guidance. For 2022 it's now forecasting revenue in the range of just under $1.73 billion to $1.85 billion; the analysts' average estimate is $1.76 billion. More encouragingly, the specialty industrial company expects its net profit per share will land in the range of $5.35 to $5.60. Even the low end of that range well exceeds the $5.14 consensus projection.
