Tripeiro Escreveu:Amanhã temos festa AZUL!!!!
já nao era sem tempo!!!
BN para todos!!!
Grande fecho na terra do palhaço BUSH!
Vamos ter festa amanhã não por causa do fecho de hoje, mas por causa disto... mas deveremos estar de olho nos jobless claims às 13:30.
Alcoa 4th-Quarter Profit Rises 76% on Gain From Sale of Unit
By Dale Crofts
Jan. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Alcoa Inc., the world's third-largest aluminum company, said fourth-quarter profit rose 76 percent as a $323 million gain from the sale of a packaging unit more than offset declining metal prices and higher raw-material costs.
Net income rose to $632 million, or 75 cents a share, from $359 million, or 41 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Alcoa said today in a statement. Excluding some items, profit fell to 36 cents. The company was expected to earn 34 cents, based on the average of 13 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Alcoa, seeking to regain investor confidence after its failed $27 billion takeover bid for Alcan Inc., is buying back stock and selling less profitable units to boost a share price that has tumbled 32 percent since July 12. Aluminum prices fell 4.3 percent in the quarter from a year earlier as U.S. demand slowed.
``Aluminum prices are less buoyant and costs are rising, squeezing Alcoa's profit margins,'' Leo Larkin, a metals and mining analyst at Standard & Poor's in New York, said before the results were released. ``Selling the underperforming businesses is a positive, but I'm surprised the company isn't having more success controlling costs.''
Alcoa agreed last month to sell its packaging unit to New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart for $2.7 billion and plans to spend $6.9 billion to buy back about 25 percent of its stock. The company, led by Chief Executive Officer Alain Belda, is struggling to pass on higher costs for raw materials and energy.
``You can't ignore the macro headwinds Alcoa is facing,'' Scott Burns, a metals and mining analyst at MorningStar Inc. in Chicago, said before the results. ``Lower aluminum prices, a weaker dollar and a slowing U.S. economy are all going against them.''
Lower Prices
Alcoa said it sold aluminum on average at $2,646 a metric ton during the quarter, down from $2,766 a year earlier, as U.S. demand slowed for the metal in autos and new-home construction.
The metal is sold mostly in dollars, so the U.S. currency's decline against the Australian dollar or Brazilian real hurts earnings by increasing costs for the company in those countries. Costs also have risen for the energy used to power aluminum smelters and for raw materials such as resins.
``We see no major catalyst other than share repurchases to drive the stock higher in the near term,'' analysts including Lloyd O'Carroll at Davenport & Company LLC in Richmond, Virginia, wrote in a Jan. 3 note to investors. They have a ``buy'' rating on Alcoa.
Alcoa is the first company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to report third-quarter earnings.
Enviado: 9/1/2008 23:42
