Alcoa Profit Misses Street - Update

(RTTNews) - Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest producer of aluminum in the US, Wednesday reported a third-quarter profit that fell short of Wall Street estimates. However, revenues grew driven primarily by strong demand for aluminum and came in line with expectations.

New York-based Alcoa's third-quarter profit was $113 million or $0.61 per share compared to a loss of $10 million or $0.06 per share last year. Results for the quarter include the negative impact of $22 million in special items, primarily for certain tax items and additional restructuring charges related to previous actions.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.72 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.77 per share.

Sales for the quarter rose to $2.96 billion from $2.33 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.96 billion. Growth in revenues were driven by higher energy sales in Brazil, higher shipments of aluminum and bauxite and increased aluminum pricing.

Alcoa last year separated into two independent, publicly-traded companies Arconic Inc. and Alcoa Corp., a higher-margin manufacturing operations and a smelting and refining business.

"Alcoa continues to benefit from favorable commodity markets, and we've raised our projections for profitability in 2017 and global aluminum demand growth for the balance of the year," said Roy Harvey, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Aluminum shipments rose to 868,000 metric tons from 761,000 metric tons last year, while alumina shipments rose to 2.27 million metric tons from 2.36 million metric tons.

Alcoa's earnings report are closely watched by investors as it's one of the first major companies to report quarterly results and unofficially kicks starts the earnings season.

Moving ahead, Alcoa increased its projection for full-year adjusted EBITDA to about $2.4 billion based on stronger alumina and aluminum prices.

AA closed Wednesday's trading at $47.75, down $0.02 or 0.04% on the NYSE. The stock further dropped $0.51 or 1.07% in the after-hours trading.