Seeing A Tougher 2015, United Technologies Cuts Its Forecast

United Technologies Corp. lowered its sights for 2015 due to the growing strength of the U.S. dollar and higher than expected pension costs.

The Hartford company also reported Monday slightly higher fourth quarter earnings, but it did so one day early due to blizzard warnings throughout New England and the Northeast.

In its revisions, United Technologies lowered its earnings outlook to about $6.95 per share, from the $7.10 per share it expected for the year back in December. And it sees about a billion dollars less in sales from the $66 billion to $67 billion is expected for 2015.

A stronger U.S. dollar makes sales in other currencies show up smaller when companies in the United States file their financial results. For United Technologies, the changes in currency are expected to reduce sales by $1.5 billion dollars. The company said it plans to fight back some of those lost earnings through cost-cutting, share buybacks and other contingencies.

The revision and bump in earnings cap a somewhat tumultuous year for United Technologies. In December, its board accepted the resignation of former chief executive Louis Chênevert reportedly due to a lack of focus on running the business. They replaced him with then-financial chief Gregory Hayes.

In the last few weeks, the company has shaken up the organizational chart of its aerospace business, notably pulling from retirement the former president of Pratt & Whitney, David Hess, to take on aerospace business development.

In a statement, Hayes celebrated the “double-digit earnings” percentage growth, a traditional benchmark for United Technologies, as well as higher sales, cost reductions and lower pension expenses. “We saw good organic growth for the year,” he said.

In the fourth quarter, higher sales of aerospace components and elevators increased profits from continuing operations less than a percent, to $1.5 billion or $1.62 per diluted share. The earnings came in one-cent short of the $1.63 per share that analysts expected for the quarter.

Sales for the quarter increased an modest 1.4 percent, to $17 billion in the quarter.

For the year, earnings per share rose to $6.82 per share, an increase of 9.8 percent for the year. (That’s Hayes’ 10 percent, rounded up.) Net income rose 8.7 percent to $6.2 billion.