SPX's profit jumps 26 percent

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Cooling-system maker SPX Corp. said Wednesday third-quarter profit jumped 26 percent, helped by acquisitions and the impact of currency changes. It also slightly narrowed its full-year earnings outlook as the strengthening dollar affects foreign sales.

Shares of SPX fell $4.68, or 10.7 percent, to $39.20 in morning trading.

The company said an adjustment for a tax settlement related to a favorable outcome of IRS tax audits for 2003 through 2005 and a charge related to a settlement of a lawsuit dating to 1997 reduced the quarter's profit increase.

Net income rose to $117 million, or $2.13 per share, from $92.9 million, or $1.71 per share, last year.

The adjusted earnings exclude a tax benefit of $25.6 million, or 47 cents per share, and a $9.5 million charge, or 11 cents per share, net of taxes, for a legal settlement, SPX said.

Adjusting for the benefit, SPX said it earned $1.66 per share. That topped analyst's average earnings estimate by a penny, said Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose to $1.51 billion, up nearly 29 percent.

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