Strong European sales goose Hurco’s quarterly results

Profit boomed more than 400 percent for Hurco Cos. Inc. in its third fiscal quarter as sales poured in from Europe.

The Indianapolis-based maker of machine tools reported Friday morning that profit in the period ended July 31 shot to $4.4 million, or 66 cents per share, up from $854,000, or 13 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2013.

Sales and service fees increased 25 percent, to $55.4 million, with about $1.7 million of the increase resulting from currency fluctuations.

The additional business reaped from Europe as well as Asia also was driven by greater purchases of high-performance machines, the company said. Buying was particularly strong in Germany and England.

"Europe contines to be an extremely important market for Hurco due to the fact that it accounts for a large percentage of our high-performance machines," CEO Michael Doar said in a written statement.

North American sales softened 7 percent from record levels set last year; however, Hurco said it isn't unusual for sales on the continent to retreat slightly prior to the International Manufacturing Technology show, which is held in September.

Hurco also said sales bookings in the most recent quarter were 22 percent ahead of the year-ago period.

Hurco stock jumped 11.3 percent, to $37.28 per share, in early trading Friday. The shares peaked at $57.10 in October 2007, slid to $10.63 in March 2009, and have been recovering steadlily since.