Alcoa Q2 Profit, Revenues Beat Street View

(RTTNews) - Alcoa Corp. (AA) Wednesday reported results for the second quarter, with both earnings and revenues beating Wall Street analysts' expectations, driven by higher aluminum prices.

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa reported second-quarter profit of $549 million or $2.95 per share, compared to last year's profit of $309 million or $1.63 per share.

Excluding one-time items, earnings for the quarter were $496 million or $2.67 per share, compared to last year's profit of $281 million or $1.49 per share. On average, 10 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $2.31 per share.

Revenues for the quarter rose to $3.64 billion from $2.83 billion a year ago. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.51 billion.

"We had a strong first half of 2022 with nearly $2 billion in Adjusted EBITDA and cash flows that have enabled more buybacks under our existing stock repurchase program as well as continued quarterly dividend payments," said Alcoa President and CEO Roy Harvey. "We have returned more than $380 million so far this year to our investors, and today we announced an additional $500 million authorization for future stock repurchases."

Alumina shipments were flat at 2.44 million metric tons compared to last year. Aluminum shipments slipped to 674 thousand metric tons from 767 thousand metric tons last year. Bauxite shipments dropped to 0.6 million dry metric tons from 1.1 million last year.

Average price per metric ton of alumina increased to $442 from $282 last year, while aluminum's average price rose to $3,864 per metric ton from $2,753 per metric ton last year.

Looking forward, the company expects total aluminum shipments to remain unchanged from the prior forecast, ranging between 2.5 and 2.6 million metric tons in 2022. The company has decreased its 2022 projection for alumina shipments to range between 13.6 and 13.8 million metric tons, a reduction of 0.6 million metric tons from the prior forecast primarily due to the lower shipments in the first half of 2022.

Alcoa also decreased its 2022 projection for bauxite shipments to range between 44.0 and 45.0 million dry metric tons, a change of 2 million dry metric tons from the prior projection due to continuing disruptions in the Atlantic bauxite market and lower demand from refineries in the first half of 2022.

AA closed Wednesday's trading at $45.06, up $0.16 or 0.36%, on the NYSE. The stock further gained $1.42 and $3.15 in the past 52-week period.