Alcoa Q3 Profit Tops Wall Street - Update

(RTTNews) - Alcoa Inc. (AA), the largest producer of aluminum in the US, Wednesday reported a third-quarter adjusted profit that trumped Wall Street estimates, driven largely by revenue growth.

New York-based Alcoa reported third-quarter loss of $41 million or $0.22 per share, compared with profit of $113 million or $0.60 per share last year.

The third quarter results include a negative impact of $160 million for special items, due primarily to a $174 million settlement charge from additional actions on U.S. pension and OPEB obligations.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.63 per share, down from $0.72 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.36 per share.

Sales for the quarter rose to $3.39 billion from $2.96 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $3.31 billion.

Aluminum shipments dropped to 806,000 metric tons from to 868,000 metric tons last year, while alumina shipments dropped to 2.23 million metric tons from 2.27 million metric tons last year.

Looking forward, Alcoa continues to project a full-year 2018 global deficit for both aluminum and alumina and a surplus for bauxite.

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.

Alcoa said it plans to purchase up to $200 million of common stock. The Company intends to retire the repurchased shares of common stock.

AA closed Wednesday's trading at $36.70, up $0.51 or 1.41% on the NYSE. The stock further gained $1.15 or 3.13% in the after-hours trade.