Roper Industries 4Q net income rises 18 pct

SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) -- Roper Industries Inc., a medical and industrial equipment maker, said Monday that its fourth-quarter net income rose 18 percent, but issued mixed guidance for the current quarter and full year.

The Sarasota, Fla.-based company earned $143.5 million, or $1.44 per share, in the last three months of 2012, up from $121.7 million, or $1.23 per share, in the same quarter a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, the company posted adjusted earnings of $1.48 per share for the latest quarter.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $809.9 million from $739.2 million. Excluding a fair value adjustment to acquired deferred revenue, the company said its adjusted revenue totaled $816 million.

Analysts, on average, expected a profit of $1.46 per share on $819.2 million in revenue, according to FactSet.

For the full year 2012, Roper earned $483.4 million, or $4.86 per share, up from $427.2 million, or $4.34 per share, in 2011. Revenue rose to $2.99 billion from $2.8 billion.

Roper said it expects to post a first-quarter profit of between $1.19 and $1.23 per share, below average Wall Street estimates of $1.29 per share. It also projected a full-year profit of between $5.60 and $5.82 per share, while analysts expect earnings of $5.68 per share.

Its shares fell $3.30, or 2.8 percent, to $115.53 in premarket trading. Its shares had risen to a 52-week high of $119.18 on Friday. They traded as low as $90.98 last February.