The aluminum and primary metals supplier Alcoa (AA) opened the first quarter of 2013’s earnings report season with a mixed performance.
Reporting after the close of the regular trading day on Monday, Alcoa reported that for Q1, net income increased to $149 million, or 0.13 cents per share, on revenue of $5.83 billion- a $55 million/$0.04 per share increase in profits on the prior-year period, but a 3 percent drop in revenue (down from $6.01 billion) in the same time-frame.
Furthermore, analyst expectations had expected earnings $0.08 per share on revenue of $5.88 billion.
The better-than-expected profits figures are the result, to no small extent, of Q1 2013’s increase in auto-sales, the industry’s best quarter since 2007. The month of March alone saw sales of light vehicles increase by almost 3.5 percent for the best single month since 2007 as well.
The company was significantly hampered by the surplus in raw aluminum that has dragged prices of its metal down 1.40 percent from a year ago, while shipments of the commodity dropped 5.5 percent from the previous year.
Earlier in the day, Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld was quoted in a CNBC interview as putting the target for growth in aluminum demand at 7 percent.
The company ended the day at a gain of 1.82 percent to close at $8.39, and then dropped 1.55 percent to $8.26 in late trading.
