Greenbrier 4th-quarter profit falls 44 percent

For the quarter that ended Aug. 31, net income slid to $7.4 million, or 45 cents per share, from $13.2 million, or 82 cents per share, in the prior-year quarter.

The company said the most recent quarter included 14 cents per share in special charges from closing its Canadian railcar manufacturing facility.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 39 cents per share. Analyst estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Revenue rose 3.2 percent to $362 million from $350.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2007. Analysts predicted revenue of $324.9 million.

Greenbrier said deliveries of new railcars fell to 1,800 units from 2,400 during last year's fourth quarter. The company previously warned that rising raw material prices meant it faced a potential loss on some 1,000 railcars that had been ordered but not yet delivered.

On Thursday, the company said 300 of those orders had been canceled, and it recorded a loss contingency of $3.9 million on the other 700 cars during the quarter.

The company's railcar manufacturing division is its largest, and its revenue of $180.7 million in the most recent quarter was down slightly from $182.2 million a year ago.

Revenue at its refurbishment and parts business jumped 35.7 percent to $158.6 million from $116.9 million.

President and Chief Executive William A. Furman said the company expects a turbulent economy and fragile credit markets to pressure demand for new railcars. He said railcars will be a tough business in the near term, but the segment "produces attractive returns during the growth phase of the economic cycle. The economy will eventually recover and we believe demand for new freight cars will return to more normalized levels."