Alcoa beats on earnings, misses on revenues (AA)

AP/Daniel R. Patmore

Alcoa reported first-quarter profits that topped analysts' expectations after the closing bell on Monday.

The aluminum giant reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.07 and revenues of $4.95 billion.

Its revenues fell 15% year-on-year. A 6% gain was offset by a 21% decline caused by low alumna prices and the strong dollar.

"Upstream segments maintained profitability in a persistently low pricing environment," said CEO Klaus Kleinfeld in the earnings statement.

The company announced that it laid off 600 people in the first quarter, and plans to let go of as many as 1,000 more people "given the current market environment."

Analysts had forecast adjusted EPS of $0.02, according to Bloomberg, with the highest estimate at $0.06 and the lowest at -$0.01.

Revenues were forecast at $5.20 billion.

Alcoa's shares fell by as much as 3% in pre-market trading on Tuesday. 

Kleinfeld said that Alcoa's split into two publicly traded companies remains on track to be completed in the second half of the year.

Last September, Alcoa announced that it was breaking up into Value-Add Co., involved in making consumer products, and Upstream Co., involved in extraction.

Alcoa came into this quarter expecting a strong year of global aerospace sales amid healthy demand for commercial aircraft.

It forecast record aluminum demand this year of 60.5 million metric tons, and global demand doubling between 2010 and 2020.

So far, it said, demand growth is tracking ahead of this forecast for the decade.

As usual, the aluminum giant unofficially kicked off the busy reporting season.

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