WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Allegheny Technologies Inc (ATI) Wednesday posted lower profit for the first quarter, largely reflecting sluggish demand from many of its major end-markets. Earnings per share were well below analysts' expectations.
For the quarter, the firm posted net income attributable to company of $10 million, down from $56.2 million a year earlier. On a per share basis earnings totaled $0.09 versus $0.50 last year.
Ten analysts, on average, polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings per share of $0.17 for the quarter. Analysts estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Revenue for the three months was $1.179 billion, down from $1.352 billion a year back. Analysts were looking for revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter.
Looking ahead, Rich Harshman, CEO said, '...we expected the first quarter and possibly the first half of 2013 to be challenging due to slow and inconsistent economic growth as a result of ongoing global macroeconomic and fiscal policy issues... While we see some signs of improvement as we enter the second quarter and it appears the fourth quarter 2012 may have been the trough in demand, we expect challenging conditions to continue to impact many of our end markets throughout the second quarter....We remain cautiously optimistic that business conditions will gradually improve as we move through 2013. We expect some improvement in demand from our key global markets and moderate recovery in domestic economic growth from the expected improvement in the housing construction market.'
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