Alcoa Inc. (AA-NYSE) just kicked off earnings season. The company posted $0.77 EPS from operation and $0.75 net-net, but it would have been $0.79 net outside of restructuring charges, with revenues of $7.9 Billion; Consensus estimates were $0.75 EPS and $7.65 Billion revenues. The company has been the beneficiary of stock rumors of a buyout, an ongoing attempt to turn itself around, a bump in shareholder-friendly activities, and because of the private equity and foreign metal company buying. All of these helped drive the stock up roughly 25% since the start of the year. The company added $527 million in cash from operations in the quarter.
Alain Belda, Alcoa Chairman and CEO: "Alcoans have delivered another strong quarter of top and bottom line growth, productivity improvements in cost of goods and overhead, and a dramatic improvement in cash flow from last year’s first quarter. Our focus on higher value-added solutions, such as aerospace products, and productivity programs helped to continue our momentum this quarter. The momentum we built last year is carrying through in disciplined capital and portfolio management, growth projects coming on-stream, and continued improvement in our strong downstream operations. Again, we have delivered a strong quarter while also investing in projects that will generate strong returns for years to come."
This looks good on first look, but we’ll have to see what the company offers up for guidance in the conference call before making any forward notes.
Jon C. Ogg
April 10, 2007
Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.
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