Vulcan Materials Company (NYSE: VMC), the nations largest producer of construction aggregates, today announced results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2017.
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma negatively affected more than half of the Company's operational footprint in the third quarter. Important Southeastern markets, particularly Florida and Georgia, as well as coastal markets in Texas and along the central Gulf Coast were disrupted. Prolonged extreme weather conditions limited both revenue growth and profitability. Aggregates shipments increased 1 percent and pricing improved 3 percent versus the prior year's third quarter. Overall, both gross profit and operating earnings improved slightly compared to the prior year.
Tom Hill, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, "Storms disrupted the third quarter shipment pattern in a number of our stronger growth markets. Absent the impact of these storms, our daily shipping pace would have been at least 7 percent higher than the prior year during August and September, and in line with expectations. We are still experiencing some lingering effects from these storms on plant efficiency and shipment levels, which will take some time to work through. Underlying demand, however, remains solid, the pricing environment remains positive and our unit profitability in aggregates continues to strengthen. On a same-store basis, our third quarter gross profit per ton was essentially flat while our cash gross profit per ton set a third quarter record despite the severe weather. I am very encouraged by these trends, which should provide good momentum into 2018.
"Our business remains on track with our longer-term goals and expectations. Growth in new construction starts in our markets continues to outpace the rest of the U.S. Recent acquisitions are performing well and should make meaningful contributions to our earnings growth in 2018 and beyond. We remain confident in the sustained, multi-year recovery in materials demand across our markets and in the further compounding improvements to our unit profitability. However, given the shortfall in shipments to date and due to certain lingering effects of third quarter weather events on fourth quarter shipments, pricing and costs, we now expect full year aggregates shipments to approximate the prior year, with full year Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $1 billion."
Third Quarter Summary (compared with prior year's third quarter)
Total revenues increased $87 million, or 9 percent, to $1.09 billion
Gross profit was $306 million versus $304 million in the prior year
Aggregates segment sales increased $37 million to $859 million and freight-adjusted revenues increased $27 million, or 4 percent, to $669 million
Shipments increased 0.7 million tons, or 1 percent, to 50.9 million tons
Freight-adjusted sales price increased $0.37 per ton, or 3 percent
Segment gross profit was $259 million versus $262 million in the prior year
Asphalt, Concrete and Calcium segment gross profit improved $4 million, collectively
SAG was $73 million, down $3 million, or 90 basis points as a percentage of total revenues
Net earnings were $109 million versus $142 million in the prior year
Adjusted EBIT was $232 million, an increase of $3 million, or 1 percent
Adjusted EBITDA was $312 million, an increase of $11 million, or 4 percent
Earnings from continuing operations were $0.82 per diluted share versus $1.07 per diluted share. Current year results include charges of $0.22 per share for early debt retirement in July
Adjusted earnings from continuing operations were $1.04 per diluted share versus $1.02 per diluted share in the prior year
Trailing-Twelve-Month Summary (compared with prior twelve-month period)
Total revenues were $3.79 billion, an increase of $209 million, or 6 percent
Gross profit was $997 million, a decrease of $18 million, or 2 percent
Aggregates segment sales increased $82 million to $3.04 billion and freight-adjusted revenues increased $60 million, or 3 percent, to $2.35 billion
Shipments decreased 2.7 million tons, or 1 percent, to 180.3 million tons
Freight-adjusted sales price increased $0.52 per ton, or 4 percent
Segment gross profit decreased $33 million, or 4 percent, to $861 million
Asphalt, Concrete and Calcium segment gross profit improved $15 million, collectively
SAG was $318 million, in line with full year expectations
Net earnings were $386 million, a decrease of $10 million
Adjusted EBIT was $679 million, a decrease of 2 percent
Adjusted EBITDA was $979 million, in line with the prior twelve months
Earnings from continuing operations were $2.77 per diluted share versus $3.00 per diluted share
Adjusted earnings from continuing operations were $2.97 per diluted share versus $3.08 per diluted share
Vulcan Materials - Vulcan Announces Third Quarter 2017 Results
