JLG Industries, the access equipment segment of Oshkosh Corp., posted net sales of $927.9 million in the fiscal second quarter of 2018 compared to $723.2 million in the same period a year ago, a 28.3 percent year-over-year boost. Sales of aerial work platforms jumped from $369.4 million in fiscal Q217 to $487.2 in the recently concluded quarter, a 31.9-percent leap.
Sales of telehandlers jumped from $161.6 million to $234.9 million, a 45.3-percent leap.
The company said all regions reported double-digit increases in sales year over year. Operating income for the segment increased 132.1 percent to $97.9 million, or 10.5 percent of sales compared to $42.1 million or 5.8 percent of sales in last year’s quarter.
Overall, Oshkosh Corp. posted consolidated net sales of $1.89 billion, an increase of 16.6 percent compared to last year’s fiscal second quarter.
“We are pleased to report another quarter of solid results highlighted by growth in revenue, adjusted operating income and adjusted earnings per share,” said Wilson Jones, president and CEO of Oshkosh Corp. “We continued to benefit in the quarter from a positive economic environment in the United States and strong demand globally for our products. We are also experiencing some challenges related to the positive economic environment, including a tight labor market, a more constrained supply chain and higher logistics and material costs. We are proactively addressing these headwinds, including implementing steel and aluminum surcharges in our non-defense segments.
“As a result of our solid second quarter performance and our positive outlook for the remainder of the year, we are raising our full-year fiscal 2018 earnings per share estimate range to $5.10 to $5.55.”
In regard to the access segment, Oshkosh said the increase in adjusted operating income in the second quarter compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2017 was primarily the result of the impact of higher sales volume, the recognition of deferred margin upon the receipt of cash and improved price realization, offset in part by challenges associated with the ramp up to higher production volumes.
For the full year, because of improved demand for access equipment sales, along with challenges related to the ramp up of access equipment production and material cost increases, the company is raising its fiscal 2018 full year outlook to sales in the $7.4 billion to $7.6 billion, an increase of $400 million from previous estimates, with all of the increase attributable to the access segment.
