AUSTIN, Texas — Alcoa, the world’s third-largest aluminum producer, reported second-quarter profit that topped analysts’ estimates Tuesday as the company raised prices. The shares gained in after-hours trading.
Alcoa is the first company in the Dow Jones industrial average to report results for the quarter through June.
Earnings at companies in the index probably declined an average of 10 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloom berg.
Chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld, who took over in May, has boosted prices to help make up for rising energy expenses, which account for about a third of the cost of producing aluminum.
Alcoa sold the metal for an average of $3,058 a ton in the quarter, about 6.2 percent higher than a year earlier.
“This is a good beat for Alcoa,” Jeremy Blackman, an analyst at Hester Capital Management, told Bloomberg Television. “It looks like they did a good job” passing on higher aluminum prices to customers.
Net income for the quarter fell 24 percent to $546 million, or 66 cents a share, from $715 million, or 81 cents, a year earlier, New York-based Alcoa said Tuesday.
Sales dropped 5.5 percent to $7.62 billion after the company sold its packaging unit.
Excluding a charge of 5 cents a share because of lost production at a refinery in Australia and a smelter in Texas, profit was 71 cents a share, topping the 65-cent average estimate of 17 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.
