Vulcan Materials Q4 Profit Rises, Shares Surge - Update

(RTTNews) - Vulcan Materials Company (VMC) Thursday said its profit for the fourth quarter surged from a year ago, on sales growth of 14 percent, reflecting strong performance at its aggregates unit. Following the results, Vulcan shares soared 11 percent on the New York Stock Exchange.

Birmingham, Alabama-based Vulcan's fourth-quarter profit rose to $9.08 million or $0.07 per share from $3.48 million or $0.03 per share last year.

On average, 14 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a loss of $0.02 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Vulcan's total revenues for the fourth quarter grew to $680.2 million from $608.4 million last year. Eight analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $655.15 million for the period.

Net sales, which excludes delivery revenues grew 14 percent to $652.9 million.

The construction materials maker noted its shipments increased 7%, with pricing up 3.5% from last year.

Aggregates unit sales rose to $419.6 million from $376.2 million, while asphalt division sales increased to $98.3 million from $84.9 million last year. Concrete segment revenue rose to $121.8 million from $103.1 million last year.

Chief Executive Don James said, "Demand for our products continues to benefit from a recovery in private construction activity, particularly residential construction. As a result, each of our operating segments reported earnings improvement in the fourth quarter."

James mentioned the strong performance of Aggregates segment, and said higher pricing and shipments along with lower cost of sales helped the division to record 37 percent improvement in earnings and a 390 basis point improvement in gross margin.

Moving ahead, James said, "External industry forecasts suggest a recovery in U.S. construction activity is underway - and we concur. In 2014, we expect U.S. aggregates demand in each of the major end markets - residential, non-residential buildings, highways and other public infrastructure - to increase over the prior year for the first time since 2004."

VMC is currently trading at $65.94, up $5.75 or 9.55%, on a volume of about 1.7 million shares.