Alcoa Beats on the Top Line

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

Alcoa (NYS: AA) reported earnings on Jan. 8. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
 For the quarter ended Dec. 31 (Q4), Alcoa beat expectations on revenues and met expectations on earnings per share.

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


Margins increased across the board.

Revenue details
 Alcoa reported revenue of $5.90 billion. The 11 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ predicted sales of $5.60 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 1.5% lower than the prior-year quarter's $5.99 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 $0.06. The 19 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ anticipated $0.06 per share. GAAP EPS were $0.21 for Q4 compared to -$0.18 per share for the prior-year quarter.

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 15.8%, 300 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 4.0%, 260 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 4.1%, 730 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
 Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $5.94 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.12.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $24.66 billion. The average EPS estimate is $0.66.

Investor sentiment
 The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 3,426 members out of 3,668 rating the stock outperform, and 242 members rating it underperform. Among 793 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 753 give Alcoa a green thumbs-up, and 40 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Alcoa is hold, with an average price target of $10.64.

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The article Alcoa Beats on the Top Line 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 position in any of the stocks mentioned. 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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