Arch Coal Inc ARCH reported second-quarter 2018 operating earnings of $2.26 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.95 by 15.9%. The upside can be attributed to strong coking coal markets performance. The bottom line improved 22.2% on a year-over-year basis.
Total Revenues
Total revenues in the reported quarter were $592.3 million, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $529 million by 12%. The quarterly revenues improved 8% on a year-over-year basis.
Segment Details
In the Metallurgical segment, the company sold 2 million tons of coal compared with 2.1 million tons in the prior-year quarter. Arch Coal recorded cash margins of $43.05 per ton compared with $29.64 in the year-ago quarter, owing to improvement in selling price of metallurgical coal.
During the quarter, Powder River Basin segment’s cash margin per ton declined nearly 19.1% year over year. The company sold 18.8 million tons, up from 18.1 million tons in the year-ago quarter.
In Other Thermal segment the company posted a cash margin of $5.58 per ton compared with $11.35 per ton in the year-ago quarter.
Arch Coal Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Financial Highlights
Cash and cash equivalents as of Jun 30, 2018, were $241.6 million compared with $273.4 million at the end of 2017.
Long-term debt as of Jun 30, 2018 was $305.1 million compared with $310.1 million at the end of 2017.
Cash provided from operating activities end of the first quarter was $145 million compared with $201 million in the year-ago period.
Arch Coal paid $8.3 million in cash dividends to shareholders during the second quarter of 2018. During the quarter the company repurchased shares worth $78 million.
Guidance
Arch Coal reaffirmed thermal coal sales volumes guidance for 2018 within 80-84 million tons and coking coal in the range of 6.3-6.7million tons.
Zacks Rank
Arch Coal has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Other Coal Releases
Cloud Peak Energy’s CLD loss of 39 cents per share in second-quarter 2018 was wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 15 cents.
Peabody Energy Corp BTU announced second-quarter 2018 earnings of 93 cents per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.05 by 11.4%.
Upcoming Release
CONSOL Coal Resources LP CCR is expected to release second-quarter 2018 results on Aug 2. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at 65 cents.
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