What's happening: Shares of cryogenic gas processing equipment maker Chart Industries (GTLS 0.66%) are down about 7% at this writing, after falling as much as 13% earlier in trading today. That puts the stock down about 14% year to date, and off more than 70% from its all-time high in September 2013.
Why it's happening: Chart released its second-quarter earnings earlier today, and while the results were better than analyst estimates across the board, management revised guidance for the full year, reducing expectations for both sales and profits:
| Metric | Revenue | EPS |
|---|---|---|
| Prior Guidance | $1.05-$1.20 | $1.60-$2.10 |
| Revised Guidance | $1.00-$1.10 |
$1.40-$1.60 |
That's a pretty significant reduction in profit projections, with the new high end of guidance right at the low end from last quarter. While it's not reassuring to see a guidance reduction considering that sales and profits are already down 15% from last year, management is acting responsibly by revising guidance. After all, China's economy is getting ugly, and energy prices have failed to rebound, impacting demand from oil and gas companies. The company's backlog contracted in the quarter largely due to these factors, and if management doesn't see the pipeline of business to meet the prior guidance, they have a duty to shareholders to make this move.
Stay tuned here for full earnings coverage later this morning.
