EmailStory Stocks®
Archive
Last Update: 07-Jan-13 08:27 ET
Commercial Metals shares little changed following miss on revenues
Commercial Metals (CMC $15.54 +0.00) reported first quarter GAAP earnings of $0.42 per share, $0.23 better than the GAAP Capital IQ Consensus Estimate of $0.19; revenues fell 10.0% year/year to $1.79 bln vs the $1.89 bln consensus. First quarter results included an after-tax gain of $17.0 mln ($0.14 per diluted share) associated with the sale of the Company's 11% ownership interest in Trinecke Zelezarny. The Company recorded after-tax LIFO income of $15.2 mln ($0.13 per diluted share) for the three months ended November 30, 2012, compared with after-tax LIFO income of $15.5 mln ($0.13 per diluted share) during the prior year's first quarter. On January 4, 2013, the board of directors of CMC declared a quarterly dividend of $0.12 for shareholders of record on January 18, 2013. Outlook Commentary: "Our second fiscal quarter is normally our weakest period of the year due to holiday slowdowns and winter weather conditions curtailing construction activity. However, there is growing evidence of an emerging recovery in domestic construction end markets, which is encouraging for future quarters. Our customers remain cautious, and stocking levels are low. Within our segments, we expect our Americas Recycling segment to benefit from scrap price improvements, which historically occur during our second fiscal quarter. We believe the scrap price improvements will likely result in near term downstream margin compression in our Americas Mills and Fabrication segments. We believe our International Mill segment will remain challenged by deteriorating conditions in the Euro zone. Further, we expect the International Marketing and Distribution segment to exhibit continued softness until there is more clarity around the economic direction in both domestic and international markets. In response to these near term headwinds, we will take advantage of the holidays and the winter weather conditions to adjust our operating rates and our inventories while retaining full flexibility to respond quickly to any upturn in our markets."
