United States Steel Crushes Earnings Estimates

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

United States Steel (NYS: X) reported earnings on July 31. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
 For the quarter ended June 30 (Q2), United States Steel met expectations on revenues and crushed expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue shrank slightly and GAAP earnings per share shrank significantly.


Margins contracted across the board.

Revenue details
 United States Steel booked revenue of $5.02 billion. The 13 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expected revenue of $4.99 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 2.0% lower than the prior-year quarter's $5.12 billion.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
 EPS came in at $0.69. The 19 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.50 per share. GAAP EPS of $0.62 for Q2 were 53% lower than the prior-year quarter's $1.32 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
 For the quarter, gross margin was 10.8%, 130 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 4.2%, 100 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 2.0%, 230 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
 Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $4.78 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.22.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $19.62 billion. The average EPS estimate is $1.46.

Investor sentiment
 The stock has a three-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 1,957 members out of 2,117 rating the stock outperform, and 160 members rating it underperform. Among 446 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 403 give United States Steel a green thumbs-up, and 43 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on United States Steel is hold, with an average price target of $31.44.

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The article United States Steel Crushes Earnings Estimates originally appeared on Fool.com.

Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor ofMotley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. The Motley Fool has no positions in the stocks mentioned above. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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