On Friday, Dana Incorporated confirmed its strong financial results for 2018 and affirmed 2019 guidance in releasing its final fourth-quarter financial results.
“Dana achieved record annual sales, profit, and profit margin performance in 2018, and we increased adjusted free cash flow by more than 50 percent. At the same time, we organically and inorganically established complete e-Propulsion capability to support all our end markets,” says James Kamsickas, Dana president and CEO. “Through the outstanding efforts and commitment of our associates and the support of our customers, we have achieved exceptional results and expect to continue this strong trajectory in 2019, including increasing sales by nearly one billion dollars for the third consecutive year.”
The company states fourth quarter sales for 2018 totaled $1.973 billion, compared with $1.837 billion in the same period of 2017, representing a 7 percent improvement. Dana says the increase was largely attributable to higher end-market demand in all business units, conversion of sales backlog, and favorable currency translation.
Additionally, Dana reported net income of $100 million for the fourth quarter of 2018, compared with a net loss of $104 million in the same period of 2017. The increase was primarily due to a $186 million charge related to the enactment of U.S. tax reform in the fourth quarter of 2017 and increased operating earnings associated with higher sales in the fourth quarter of 2018.
For the entirety of 2018, Dana says sales were $8.143 billion, $934 million higher than 2017, primarily due to strong end-market demand, conversion of sales backlog, and to a lesser extent, acquisitions and recovery of material inflation.
Net income in 2018 was $427 million, compared with net income of $111 million in 2017, which included the aforementioned fourth-quarter non-recurring tax item in 2017, the company says.
As for 2019, Dana says it anticipates the completion its acquisition of the Drive Systems segment of the Oerlikon Group (ODS) by March 1. The company then offers guidance ranges of sales of $8.250 to $8.550 billion; or $8.950 to $9.350 billion including ODS.
“Strong customer demand and delivery of our sales backlog, combined with our recent acquisitions, allowed us to achieve a record performance in 2018,” says Jonathan Collins, executive vice president, CFO, Dana. “We have a positive outlook for 2019 due to stable end markets, our solid sales backlog, and accretive acquisitions, all of which we expect to provide us a third consecutive year of double-digit sales and profit growth.
