Roper Industries, Inc. (NYSE: ROP) reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011.
Diluted earnings per share were $0.91, as net earnings for the first quarter reached $89 million, a 49% increase over the first quarter of 2010. Sales increased 21% to $645 million and orders increased 24% to an all-time record of $702 million.
Operating income was $142 million, representing 22% of sales, an increase of 320 basis points over the prior year. EBITDA reached $177 million and EBITDA margin expanded 310 basis points to a record 27.4% of sales.
"Roper is off to a great start in 2011 with organic sales growth of 16% and orders that exceeded our expectations," said Brian Jellison, Roper's Chairman, President and CEO. "We are encouraged by broad-based strength across all four of our segments, as each posted double-digit sales and orders growth. As a result of strong operating leverage and exceptional execution by our businesses, we were able to expand both gross margin by 200 basis points and operating margin by 320 basis points in the quarter."
"With another solid quarter of cash generation, we reduced our outstanding debt by nearly $100 million, bringing net-debt-to-net capitalization to 25% and providing the Company with over $800 million in available liquidity. Our acquisition pipeline is full and we see interesting opportunities for the remainder of the year," Mr. Jellison continued.
2011 Outlook and Guidance
"We are well positioned for the balance of 2011 with a record backlog of $851 million and a first quarter book-to-bill ratio of 1.09," said Mr. Jellison.
Roper is increasing its full year DEPS guidance to $3.97 - $4.12 from $3.82 - $4.02, and establishing second quarter DEPS guidance of $0.95 - $1.00. The Company's guidance excludes future acquisitions.