Cameron International's 4Q net income doubles

HOUSTON (AP) -- Shares of Cameron International Corp. hit an all-time high Thursday after the oil industry equipment maker said that its fourth-quarter net income more than doubled and revenue from all of its businesses rose.

The Houston-based company also said its backlog surged 43 percent to a record, although its outlooks for the current quarter and the entire year that fell below Wall Street expectations.

Cameron International said that it earned $218.3 million, or 88 cents per share, in the three months that ended Dec. 31. That compares to earnings of $99.9 million, or 40 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding charges, the company said that it earned 95 cents per share in the fourth quarter, meeting Wall Street's expectations, according to FactSet.

Revenue rose 19 percent to $2.43 billion from $2.03 billion, beating Wall Street's estimates of $2.37 billion.

Revenue from its drilling and production systems business rose 15 percent to $1.39 billion. Revenue from its valves and measurement business jumped 20 percent to $556.7 million. And its process and compression systems business jumped 35 percent to $475.4 million.

2012 net income amounted to $750.5 million, or $3.02 per share, on revenue of $8.5 billion.

Cameron's backlog at Dec. 31 was $8.6 billion, up from $6 billion at the start of the year and a company record. Backlog is a potential indicator of future revenue.

For 2013, the company expects earnings in the range of $3.70 to $3.95 per share, excluding charges. That's slightly below analysts' expectations of $4.05 per share.

First-quarter earnings excluding charges are pegged between 70 cents and 75 cents per share. Analysts expect earnings of 84 cents per share, according to FactSet.

Shares of the company rose $3.53, or 5.8 percent, to $64.43 in afternoon trading. Earlier, they rose to an all-time high of $64.75.