Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. announced consolidated earnings results for the second quarter and six months ended December 31, 2012. For the quarter, the company reported net sales of $589,517,000 compared with $570,397,000 for the same period a year ago. Operating income was $40,569,000 compared with $33,335,000 for the same period a year ago. Income before income tax was $40,981,000 compared with $32,547,000 for the same period a year ago. Net income was $27,043,000 or $0.64 per diluted share compared with $20,935,000 or $0.49 per diluted share for the same period a year ago. With a modest increase in sales, cost controls and efficiency gains helped generate a solid increase in earnings and profitability for the quarter.

For the six months, the company reported net sales of $1,200,036,000 compared with $1,149,971,000 for the same period a year ago. Operating income was $84,887,000 compared with $76,602,000 for the same period a year ago. Income before income tax was $85,733,000 compared with $73,835,000 for the same period a year ago. Net income was $56,575,000 or $1.33 per diluted share compared with $47,317,000 or $1.11 per diluted share for the same period a year ago. Net cash provided by operating activities was $28,886,000 compared with $30,216,000 for the same period a year ago. Property purchases was $6,843,000 compared with $14,022,000 for the same period a year ago.

The Board of Directors declared a 10% increase in the quarterly cash dividend to $0.23 per common share. The dividend is payable on February 28, 2013, to shareholders of record on February 15, 2013.

Given the current economic environment, the company is now projecting earnings per share to be in the range of $2.70 to $2.90 on revenue growth expectations of 4% to 7%. For fiscal 2013, the company expects tax rate to be in the 34.0% to 34.5% range, as the impact of lower effective foreign tax rates continue. ERP spending in fiscal 2013 continues to be in line with expectations. The company expects, fiscal 2013 should be another solid year for generating cash from operations, and expect to achieve a nice improvement from the fiscal 2012 results. The company expects gross profit percentage to slightly improve for the remainder of the year.