Stocks outpace industrial controls; earnings, values remain steady

Confirming again that, ‘The only constant is change,’ several significant alterations have been made to the Control Engineering Stock Indexes. This was similar to the recent subtraction and addition of several new players to the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Danaher Corp. was added to the CE Stock Index because its recent acquisitions allowed it to meet the index’s criterion for membership. To qualify, index member companies must have at least 25% of sales and assets involved in industrial controls. Danaher presently reports 55% of total sales in process and environmental controls with about 50% of assets in the same fields. Likewise, the ‘new’ Honeywell in the index consists of the old Honeywell and the old Allied Signal, which acquired Honeywell and retained its name.

Though the market value of these companies remained about the same for 4Q99, as did 12-month earnings, the CE Stock Index declined slightly, about 1.6%. This sharply contrasted with the Dow Jones, up 11%, and the S&P, which increased 15%. However, none of these could keep pace with the NASDAQ, which had a phenomenal rise of 48% during the same period.

Year-to-year figures reflect a similar trend, but greater relative percentages. For example, the CE Index dropped about 7%, while the Dow Jones went up 25%, the S&P increased 20%, and the NASDAQ soared 85%.

Control Engineering Stock Index

Stock prices at close 9/30/99
($) close 12/31/99
% chg. in quarter
52-wk. high
Annual div. yield
Price/earn. ratio
12-mo. EPS ($)

Ametek Inc. 19.81
19.06
-3.79
25.75
1.05
12
1.58

Badger Meter Inc. 34.25
30.13
-12.04
41.00
2.32
12
2.46

Danaher Corp. 52.67
48.25
-8.39
69.00
0.21
29
1.69

Eaton Corp. 86.31
72.63
-15.86
103.50
2.48
11
6.36

Emerson Electric Co. 63.19
57.38
-9.20
71.44
2.44
19
3.00

Flowserve 16.63
17.00
2.26
21.56
3.53
20
0.83

Honeywell Inc. 59.77
57.69
-3.49
68.63
1.21
22
2.60

K-Tron International 14.88
13.50
-9.24
18.63
0.00
6
2.19

Moore Products Co. 22.63
39.88
76.24
42.38
0.00
42
0.94

National Instruments 35.34
38.25
8.22
39.13
0.00
47
0.82

Rockwell Int’l. 52.50
47.88
-8.81
64.94
2.09
17
2.90

Transmation Inc. 2.75
2.41
-12.50
5.38
0.00
13
0.18

Tyco Int’l. Ltd. 51.63
39.00
-24.46
53.88
0.26
25
1.53

Yield = % based on closing priceEPS = earnings per shareDiv. = dividendSource: Control Engineering with data from Cnet Investor (Boulder, Colo., www.investor.cnet.com , 303/938-1877)

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