Written by StockNews.com

Cintas Corporation (Nasdaq: CTAS) late Wednesday [Mar 22, 2017 | 4:16pm] posted market-beating fiscal third quarter earnings results and provided an update on its big acquisition of G&L Services, which was completed yesterday.

The Cincinnati-based uniform and business services provider reported Q3 earnings per share (EPS) of $1.11, which was $0.04 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.07.

Revenues rose 5.3% from last year to $1.28 billion, matching analysts’ view for $1.28 billion.

The company commented on its recent acquisition and actually pulled its earnings guidance for the remainder of the year:

“Yesterday we completed the acquisition of G&K. We are excited to have the G&K employees join us as Cintas partners and now begin the process of integration. We expect to realize annual synergies in the range of $130 million to $140 million in the fourth full year following the acquisition. The integration process needed to achieve the annual synergies will result in certain non-recurring costs. In addition, we will continue the purchase accounting process, including certain third-party valuations, which may have a significant impact on our future results. While we have estimated these integration costs and the impact of the purchase price accounting results using assumptions from our due diligence, we must confirm our assumptions and complete the purchase accounting process. Therefore, we are pulling our guidance for the remainder of our 2017 fiscal year. We will provide our expectations for results when the impact of these items becomes clearer.”

Back in August, CTAS announced the acquisition of Minnetonka, Minnesota-based G&K for $2.2 billion. G&K is a provider of branded uniform and facility services programs in the U.S. and Canada, with annual revenues of about $1 billion.

Cintas Corporation shares rose $1.32 (+1.06%) to $125.69 in after-hours trading Wednesday. Year-to-date, CTAS had gained 7.62% prior to today’s report, versus a 4.80% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

CTAS currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #4 of 62 stocks in the Outsourcing – Business Services category.