Alcoa (AA) has done it again: another impressively big beat on both the top and bottom lines, this time for Q4 2014. America's biggest aluminum producer posted revenues of $6.38 billion — a 6% beat over top-line expectations — and earnings per share of 33 cents, representing a 27% positive earnings surprise for the quarter.
This marks the eight earnings beat in the past nine quarters for the aluminum giant, with an average positive earnings surprise of the previous four quarters of 33%. And this is after 5 analysts had upwardly revised earnings for Q4 in the past 30 days. Further, over the past four quarters, Alcoa has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a whopping 48%.
Adding to the impressive headline numbers, going forward Alcoa expects its Aerospace business to grow 9-10% and Auto up 2-4%. Global aluminum demand is expected to rise 7% in 2015.
As far as the whole of 2014, the company has stated that 2014 was the strongest full year since 2008. The company brought in $23.9 billion in revenues for the year, with record results in Engineered Products and Solutions.
After completing its acquisition of jet engine maker Firth Rixson, Alcoa now has set its sights on TITAL, a leader in aluminum structural castings. Both of these moves point to the company continuing to accelerate its growth in Engineered Products.
Alcoa shares are moving up — though rather modestly at around 1.1% — in the after-market following the earnings report. This followed a regular trading day that barely eked out gains. That said, Alcoa is up 8.7% in the past month and 60% since this time last year.
Gee, do you think the Dow Jones would like to have AA back right now?
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