During the third quarter, Eaton also took $33 million worth of pre-tax charges related to the restructuring of its operations. It also realized a gain of $23 million from the sale of non-core businesses. After all unusual items in both periods, third quarter net income was $40 million compared to $69 million one year ago.
For the first nine months of 2001, operating earnings per share were $2.64 on sales of $5.60 billion. Comparable earnings last year were $4.23 per share, on sales of $6.36 billion, said Eaton.
"Eaton’s third-quarter earnings came in about where we expected in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attack on our nation," said Alexander M. Cutler, Eaton’s chairman and CEO. "While it is still early to accurately assess the full impact of that tragedy on the U.S. and world economy, we expect Eaton’s markets will be down again this quarter and remain below year-ago levels until the second half of 2002.”
