OTTAWA (dpa-AFX) - Automotive supplier Magna International inc. (MGA, MG.TO) on Thursday reported higher profit for the first quarter, as sales improved 7 percent from last year with improved demand in North America. The company also boosted its full year revenue outlook. The stock is up nearly 4 percent in pre-market on the NYSE.
Net income attributable to the company increased to $343 million from $322 million in the prior year. Earnings per share grew to $1.46 from $1.30. Last year's net income was hurt by $0.04 per share in other expense.
On average, 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.29 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Sales climbed to $7.67 billion from $7.19 billion, as North American, European and Rest of World production sales increased. Analysts expected revenues of $7.50 billion.
Sales in North America rose 10 percent to $3.92 billion and vehicle production volumes climbed 17 percent. Sales were up 6 percent in Europe at $2.32 billion while vehicle production volumes dropped 7 percent in Western Europe.
Complete vehicle assembly sales decreased 11 percent to $599 million while complete vehicle assembly volumes decreased 10 percent to around 30,000 units.
Tooling, engineering and other sales declined 7 percent to $422 million.
On Wednesday, the Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.275 for the quarter ended March 31.
For 2012, Magna now expects consolidated total sales of $29.0 billion - $30.5 billion and consolidated production sales of $24.5 billion - $25.6 billion. Analysts have a consensus revenue estimate of $29.32 billion for fiscal 2012.
Earlier, the company expected consolidated total sales of $28.0 billion to $29.5 billion and consolidated production sales of $23.8 billion to $24.9 billion for fiscal 2012.
MGA closed on Wednesday at $42.80, up from the prior close of $42.61, on 1.28 million shares. The stock is up nearly 4 percent in pre-market at $44.50.
MG.TO settled at C$42.68, compared to the previous session's close of C$42.57, on a volume of 492,000 shares.
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© 2012 AFX News
