Coal miner Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) on Wednesday reported a loss for the first quarter on a 14 percent decline in revenues, reflecting reduced U.S. shipments and lower Australian prices. Looking ahead, the company maintained its total sales volume outlook for fiscal 2013.
In December, Peabody had warned that its first-quarter earnings would be impacted by higher costs as well as weaker prices and sales. Peabody's sales volumes for the quarter declined 7 percent to 57.2 million tons from 61.4 million tons in the year-ago period. Australian volumes increase 26 percent, but were offset by a 32 percent decline in realized pricing.
The company's net loss for the first quarter was $23.4 million or $0.09 per share, compared to net income of $172.7 million or $0.63 per share in the prior-year quarter.
Loss from continuing operations for the quarter was $10.3 million or $0.05 per share, compared with income from continuing operations of $183.0 million or $0.65 per share in the prior-year quarter. The company said the results were affected by lower pre-tax earnings as well as higher depreciation, depletion and amortization expenses.
Adjusted loss from continuing operations was $8.7 million or $0.05 per share, compared to adjusted earnings from continuing operations of $191.9 million or $0.68 per share in the same period last year. On average, twenty six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report loss of $0.15 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenues declined 14 percent to $1.75 billion from $2.02 billion in the year-ago period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.78 billion.
Looking ahead to the second quarter, Peabody forecasts adjusted results in a range of loss of $0.25 per share to profit of $0.01 per share. The outlook reflects expectations of higher Australian volumes and continued cost containment activities, partly offset by two longwall moves. Analysts expect the company to report earnings of $0.01 per share for the quarter.
For fiscal 2013, Peabody maintained its outlook for total sales of 230 to 250 million tons, including U.S. sales of 180 to 190 million tons, Australian sales of 33 to 36 million tons, and the remainder from trading and brokerage activities.
Gregory Boyce, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Peabody Energy said, "While recent market dynamics have not yet translated into expected seaborne price increases, we see another year of import growth from China and India, growing Chinese steel production and new coal generation being built around the globe."
Longer term, Peabody expects growing steel requirements to drive a 200 million ton increase in global metallurgical coal demand by 2017, with Australia sourcing a significant amount of that growth. Peabody projects that over the next five years, over 450 gigawatts of coal-fueled generation will come on line, representing 1.4 billion tons of annual consumption at expected capacity utilization.
BTU closed Wednesday's trading at $19.02. In Thursday's pre-market, the stock is up $0.63 or 3.31 percent to $19.65.
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