Grainger's weak outlook is another bad industrial omen
Grainger | October 18, 2016
Another day, another industrial company lowering its earnings guidance. On the heels of cuts by Dover and Honeywell, today's bearer of bad news is Lake Forest-based W.W. Grainger, a $12.3 billion supplier of motors, fasteners and other industrial parts. The company reduced the midpoint of its 2016 earnings-per-share forecast by about 15 cents and called for weaker revenue growth, even as third-quarter results surpassed analysts' estimates. Margins continued to erode as the commodity downturn and industrial slowdown limits Grainger's ability to raise prices for customers.