By Ernest Scheyder
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Specialty chemical maker Ashland Inc posted a fiscal first-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by cost cuts and an uptick in sales, and its shares jumped 2.2 percent in premarket trading.
Ashland, which bought rival Hercules Inc in November 2008, owns the Valvoline brand of lubricants and retail oil-change locations. It also sells materials to industries that have slowly begun to recover from the recession, including transportation, construction and personal care.
'Each of our businesses is currently showing some signs of demand improvement and stable or improving margins,' Chief Executive Officer Jim O'Brien said in a statement. 'We are starting to demonstrate our ability to generate the consistent earnings, gross margins and cash flows indicative of specialty chemicals companies.'
Covington, Kentucky-based Ashland posted net income of $86 million, or $1.10 per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $119 million, or $1.73 per share.
Excluding one-time items, Ashland earned 89 cents per share.
Analysts on average were expecting 72 cents per share, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S said, but added that tax-related adjustments announced by the company made it difficult to compare that estimate with the reported results.
Ashland said 'discrete income tax effects' boosted earnings by 8 cents per share. The company declined to discuss the tax benefit in detail, saying only that the boost was related to 'foreign tax items.'
Revenue rose 2.7 percent to $2.02 billion, narrowly ahead of the $2.00 billion that analysts expected.
Ashland shares rose 87 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $40.50 in premarket trading. The stock has traded between $5.35 and $45.80 in the past 52 weeks.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and John Wallace) Keywords: ASHLAND/ (ernest.scheyder@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-223-6119; Reuters Messaging:ernest.scheyder.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Specialty chemical maker Ashland Inc posted a fiscal first-quarter profit on Tuesday, helped by cost cuts and an uptick in sales, and its shares jumped 2.2 percent in premarket trading.
Ashland, which bought rival Hercules Inc in November 2008, owns the Valvoline brand of lubricants and retail oil-change locations. It also sells materials to industries that have slowly begun to recover from the recession, including transportation, construction and personal care.
'Each of our businesses is currently showing some signs of demand improvement and stable or improving margins,' Chief Executive Officer Jim O'Brien said in a statement. 'We are starting to demonstrate our ability to generate the consistent earnings, gross margins and cash flows indicative of specialty chemicals companies.'
Covington, Kentucky-based Ashland posted net income of $86 million, or $1.10 per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $119 million, or $1.73 per share.
Excluding one-time items, Ashland earned 89 cents per share.
Analysts on average were expecting 72 cents per share, Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S said, but added that tax-related adjustments announced by the company made it difficult to compare that estimate with the reported results.
Ashland said 'discrete income tax effects' boosted earnings by 8 cents per share. The company declined to discuss the tax benefit in detail, saying only that the boost was related to 'foreign tax items.'
Revenue rose 2.7 percent to $2.02 billion, narrowly ahead of the $2.00 billion that analysts expected.
Ashland shares rose 87 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $40.50 in premarket trading. The stock has traded between $5.35 and $45.80 in the past 52 weeks.
(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and John Wallace) Keywords: ASHLAND/ (ernest.scheyder@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646-223-6119; Reuters Messaging:ernest.scheyder.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
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