RPM's consumer segment reported a 7.7 percent increase in sales to $343.4 million from $318.9 million in the fiscal 2012 first quarter. Organic sales were up 6.1 percent, including 5.3 percent in volume growth and 2.4 percent from pricing, partially offset by 1.6 percent in foreign exchange translation losses. Acquisition growth added 1.6 percent. Consumer segment EBIT improved 14.2 percent to $58.8 million in the fiscal 2013 first quarter from $51.5 million in the same period a year ago, driven primarily by higher sales volume and improved leverage on selling, general and administrative expenses. 

The company's industrial segment sales, including adjustments, improved 5.4 percent, to $703.3 million from $667.0 million a year ago, with 1.0 percent in volume improvement, 1.8 percent in pricing increases, and acquisition growth of 8.1 percent, all of which were partially offset by 5.5 percent in foreign exchange losses.  Including adjustments, industrial segment EBIT declined 16.8 percent to $76.9 million. Excluding one-time adjustments, first-quarter sales increased 5.9 percent to $706.2 million and EBIT increased 5.6 percent to $97.7 million from $92.5 million in the fiscal 2012 first quarter.

"Based on our first-quarter results and outlook, we are increasing our fiscal 2013 sales guidance issued with our fiscal 2012 year-end earnings release on July 23, 2012, which anticipated consolidated sales growth in a range of 5 percent to 10 percent, to a consolidated sales increase of 8 percent to 10 percent. Our earnings guidance at that time was also in the range of 5 percent to 10 percent. We now expect net income and diluted earnings per share for fiscal 2013 to increase between 9 percent and 12 percent, or $1.80 to $1.85 per share, prior to one-time adjustments, as a result of continued robust growth in North America, recent acquisitions and more favorable foreign currency comparisons during the back half of this fiscal year," said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank C. Sullivan. 

The board of directors of RPM declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.225 per share, payable on October 31, 2012, to stockholders of record as of October 15, 2012. This payment represents a 4.7 percent increase over the $0.215 quarterly cash dividend paid at this time last year. It marks RPM's 39^th consecutive year of increased cash dividends paid to its stockholders, which places RPM in an elite category of less than half of 1 percent of all 19,000 publicly-traded U.S. companies.