, Columnist
Grainger Forecast Is Another Bad Omen
Guidance cuts are piling up, and 2017 may not deliver a hoped-for recovery.
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Another day, another industrial company lowering its earnings guidance.
On the heels of cuts by Dover and Honeywell, Tuesday's bearer of bad news is 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.