Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON ) early Friday posted market-beating first quarter profits and revenue, and slightly lifted the low end of its full-year outlook amid solid revenue growth in most of its segments.

Written by StockNews.com

The Morris Plains, NJ-based industrial giant reported:

• Q1 earnings per share (EPS) of $1.66, which was $0.04 better than the Wall Street consensus estimate of $1.62.
• Revenues fell 0.3% from last year to $9.49 billion, but still, beat analysts’ view for $9.33 billion...
• Aerospace sales for the first quarter were flat from last year,
• Home and Building Technologies sales gained 3%,
• Performance Materials and Technologies sales jumped 5%,
• and Safety and Productivity Solutions sales rose 3%.

Looking ahead,

• HON provided in-line guidance for 2017, raising the low end of its full-year EPS outlook to $6.90 to $7.10, up from a prior outlook of $6.85 to $7.10. On average, Wall Street analysts are looking for $7.03 per share for the year.

The company commented via press release:

“Our diversified portfolio, coupled with the investments we’ve made over the past several years, drove our excellent performance in the first quarter…

We look forward to continuing our track record of performance and we remain focused on:

• accelerating our organic growth,
• continuing to expand margins by maintaining our productivity rigor,
• delivering best-in-class returns as the leading software-industrial company,
• and more aggressively deploying capital.”

Honeywell International Inc. shares were mostly flat in premarket trading Friday. Year-to-date, HON has gained 7.41%, versus a 5.74% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.

HON currently has a StockNews.com POWR Rating of A (Strong Buy), and is ranked #1 of 32 stocks in the Industrial – Manufacturing category.