The board of directors of Illinois Tool Works Inc. declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.38 per share. This equates to $1.52 per share on an annualized basis after taking into account the acceleration of the payment of the January 2013 dividend into December 2012. The dividend will be paid on July 9, 2013 to stockholders of record as of June 28, 2013.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. announced unaudited consolidated earnings results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013. For the quarter, the company reported operating revenues of $4,009 million against $4,358 million a year ago. Operating income was $660 million against $694 million a year ago. Income from continuing operations before income taxes was $646 million against $652 million a year ago. Income from continuing operations was $459 million against $464 million a year ago. Net income was $354 million against $486 million a year ago. Net income per diluted share was $0.78 against $1.00 a year ago. Income per diluted share from continuing operations was $1.01 against $0.95 a year ago. Net cash provided by operating activities was $366 million against $323 million a year ago. Additions to plant and equipment were $89 million against $84 million a year ago. The company reported adjusted total revenue of $4,009 million, operating income of $660 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.96 for the first quarter of 2013. Total revenues decreased 8%, primarily due to the impact of Decorative Surfaces. Excluding the 2012 revenue of Decorative Surfaces, revenues declined 1.8%, driven by organic revenue declines in both Europe and North America. The 8% revenue decline in the first quarter was primarily due to the following factors: divestitures primarily Decorative Surfaces, reduced revenues by 6.4%. Base revenues were down 2.7%, with North American-based revenues decreasing 1.9%, and mixed international based revenues that overall were down 3.5% year-over-year. Europe declined 6%, but impacts across virtually all of businesses. Asia businesses grew 0.5%, led by strong growth in both China and India. Key drivers of year-over-year 15% EPS growth include the following: $0.32 from base businesses, driven from organic growth as well as the net benefits of enterprise initiatives, primarily related to business structure simplification, with some sourcing benefits later in the year, the expected benefits from initiatives to be more than half of base business income growth. For 2013, the company is maintaining its $4.25 midpoint forecast for full-year diluted income per share from continuing operations. The full-year diluted income per share from continuing operations forecast range is now $4.15 to $4.35 and assumes a total revenue growth range of 2% to 4% against pro forma 2012. This revenue range is slightly lower than January forecast, as the company now anticipates organic revenue growth of 0% to 2% for the year. Additionally, the company expects full year operating margins to be in a range of 16.9% to 17.3% against 2012 margins of 16.3%. For the year, the company expects conversion of free operating cash flow to be close to 100% of income from continuing operations. For the second quarter of 2013, the company is forecasting diluted income per share from continuing operations to be in a range of $1.04 to $1.12 and assumes a total revenue growth range of 2.5% to 3.5%. The full-year and second quarter forecasts include the EPS dilution of discontinued operations. The second quarter forecast includes nearly $30 million of additional restructuring expense against last year, which reduces second quarter operating margin by 70 basis points and second quarter EPS by $0.05 against 2012. The midpoint of the second quarter diluted EPS range of $1.08 would be a 5.9% growth against the 2012 pro forma EPS of $1.02.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) completes the review of its business portfolio and decides to divest six slow-growing units with a combined annual revenue of about $600 million. The company described some of the six as being in the distribution of construction products and transportation-related products. ITW said the six businesses have an operating margin of about 7%, compared with a 16.5% margin for the whole company during the quarter ended March 2013. "The primary driver [for the divestments] is to focus the company on areas that could fully maximize the benefits of the ITW business model. One of the key elements of that is the ability to operate in spaces where we can innovate," said ITW's Chief Executive Scott Santi. Santi added that company will continue to evaluate whether to sell the packaging business or spin it off as a stand-alone public company to ITW shareholders. He said divestiture of packaging likely won't be completed until 2014. Share price of ITW's stock closed up 3.2%, or $1.98, at $62.76.