Johnson Controls 3Q profit rises

But the Milwaukee-based company also issued a fourth-quarter profit outlook below Wall Street predictions and cut its fiscal-year outlook, blaming charges related to an acquisition and higher commodity costs, along with the ongoing downturn in the automotive and housing markets.

Johnson Controls shares rose 50 cents to $30.11 Thursday, after initially dropping to $26 earlier in the day and passing its previous 52-week low of $27.17.

For the quarter ended June 30, Johnson Controls earned $439 million, or 73 cents per share, compared with $396 million, or 66 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.

The per-share profit matched the average prediction of Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Financial.

Sales rose 11 percent to $9.87 billion from $8.91 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts, on average, expected $9.84 billion in sales.

Steve Roell, the company's chairman and chief executive, said he was pleased with the results, given the tough automotive and residential construction markets during the quarter.

"We look at 2009 and beyond and we feel we're positioned to win in mega trends: energy efficiency, sustainability, hybrid vehicles and emerging markets," Roell told investors in a conference call.

Roell pointed to growth in demand for energy efficiency products, spurred by a jump in energy prices, that boosted the company's building efficiency sales 13 percent to $3.68 billion. The jump included a 19 percent increase in workplace solutions sales, while residential HVAC sales fell 17 percent.

The business' backlog rose 15 percent to $4.8 billion on strong orders from all of the company's geographic regions, Johnson Controls said.