Louisiana-Pacific Corporation (LPX) reported a loss of $23 million or 18 cents per share from continuing operations for the first quarter of 2011.
The loss remained unchanged year over year at 18 cents, driven by lower tax benefit rate in 2011 despite an overall satisfactory performance by the company. However, the realized loss was lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 11 cents per share.
Net sales for the quarter were up 12% to $332 million from $297 million in the corresponding quarter of 2010, partly offset by lower housing starts. The company also exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $331 million. Both Oriented Strand Board (OSB) and Siding segments showed improvements while the Engineered Wood Products (EWP) loss from the segment deepened.
Operating loss for the quarter also decreased to $18 million from the 2010 first quarter loss of $23 million.
The OSB segment reported net sales of $132 million during the quarter, up 12% from $118 million a year ago. The higher sales from the quarter were primarily attributable to an 18% increase in sales volumes partly offset by a 5% drop in sales price. The operating loss from the segment was $9 million compared with that of $5 million in the first quarter of 2010.
The Siding segment generated net sales of $106 million, up 18% from $90 million in the prior-year quarter. The contributing factor was an increased volume in the company’s key markets. Operating income from the segment was $13 million compared with $9 million last year.
Net sales in the Engineered Wood Products segment remained almost unchanged at $48 million led by improvements in prices and volumes of laminated strand lumber, partly offset by lower laminated veneer lumberand I-Joist. Operating loss decreased to $6 million from $7 million in the first quarter of 2010.
Louisiana-Pacific had cash and cash equivalents of $321.2 million as of March 31, 2011 compared with $389.3 million as of December 31, 2010. Long-term debt stood at $716.1 million at the end of the first quarter of 2011 versus $714.5 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2010. Inventories piled up to $202.7 million as of March 31, 2011 from $151.9 million as of December 31, 2010.
In the first three months of the year, the company used $68.4 million of cash in operating activities compared with almost half that amount ($32.1 million) used a year back. Capital expenditure went up to $2.4 million from $1.9 million in the first three months of 2010.
Nashville, Tennessee-based Louisiana-Pacific, a Zacks #4 Rank (Sell) stock, manufactures and distributes building products for new home construction, repair and remodeling, manufactured housing, and light industrial and commercial construction.
The company offers its products to retail home centers, manufactured housing producers, distributors, wholesalers and building materials dealers in North America, South America, Asia and Europe.
Be the first to comment