Alcoa Q2 Profit Tops Street

(RTTNews) - Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest producer of aluminum in the US, Wednesday reported a second-quarter profit that trumped Wall Street estimates, as revenues grew driven primarily strong demand for alumina and aluminum.

New York-based Alcoa's second-quarter profit was $75 million or $0.40 per share, compared to a loss of $55 million or $0.29 per share last year. Results for the quarter include the negative impact of $41 million in special items, primarily for certain tax items and additional restructuring charges related to previous actions.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.62 per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.60 per share.

Sales for the quarter rose to $2.86 billion from $2.32 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.85 billion. Growth in revenues were driven by higher aluminum and alumina pricing and shipments.

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 generated solid profitability in the second quarter with strong cash flow that grew our cash balance to more than $950 million," said Roy Harvey, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Aluminum shipments rose to 833,000 metric tons from 770,000 metric tons last year, while alumina shipments rose to 2.39 million metric tons from 2.27 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.

AA closed Wednesday's trading at $36.50, up $0.07 or 0.19% on the NYSE. The stock, however, dropped $0.90 or 2.47% in the after-hours trading.