Donaldson Earnings Soar...Again

Eddy Elfenbein submits: I've learned never to say "I love a stock," but I'm in serious like with Donaldson (DCI). The company just had another fantastic earnings report. The company has increased its earnings for 17 straight years.

For the fourth quarter, DCI earned 43 cents a share, three cents more than the Street was expecting. The stock is up 10% after-hours.

For the year, Donaldson earned $1.55 a share on sales of $1.694 billion. Here are the results going back to 1990:

Year.............Sales.................EPS
1990............$422.9...............$0.19
1991............$457.7...............$0.21
1992............$482.1...............$0.23
1993............$533.3...............$0.26
1994............$593.5...............$0.30
1995............$704.0...............$0.37
1996............$758.6...............$0.42
1997............$833.3...............$0.50
1998............$940.4...............$0.57
1999............$944.1...............$0.66
2000............$1,092.3............$0.76
2001............$1,137.0............$0.83
2002............$1,126.0............$0.95
2003............$1,218.3............$1.05
2004............$1,415.0............$1.18
2005............$1,595.7............$1.27
2006............$1,694.0............$1.55

Donaldson sees 2007 EPS coming in at $1.72 to $1.82 a share, which is above Wall Street's forecast.

DCI Last Decade Chart