Methanex (MEOH) Q3 Earnings Miss, Revenues Beat Estimates
Methanex Corporation MEOH slipped to loss (attributable to shareholders) of $10 million or 21 cents per share in the third quarter of 2019 from profit of $128 million or $1.61 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Adjusted loss per share (barring one-time items) in the reported quarter was 27 cents. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter was pegged at breakeven.
Revenues declined around 37.7% year over year to $649.7 million in the quarter. However, it surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $632 million.
Adjusted EBITDA tumbled 69.3% year over year to $90 million. This resulted from a decrease in methanol prices, which was partly offset by higher sales volume of methanol produced by Methanex.
Methanex Corporation Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise
Methanex Corporation price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Methanex Corporation Quote
Operational Highlights
Production in the quarter totaled 1,837,000 tons, up 5.8% year over year. Total sales volume was 2,824,000 tons, down 1.6% year over year.
Average realized price for methanol was $272 per ton in the quarter, down 34.1% from $413 in the prior-year quarter.
Financials
For the reported quarter, cash flow from operating activities was $71 million, down 68.9% year over year. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $857 million, up around 69.6% year over year.
Methanex returned $27 million to shareholders through regular dividend payouts during the third quarter.
Outlook
The company anticipates its Geismar 3 plant to deliver strong returns on significant capital and operating cost advantages. Over the coming years, most of the large-scale capacity additions are anticipated to be in the Americas and the Middle East. Further, the company expects new non-integrated capacity additions in China to be modest on continuous restrictions by the government in China.
Price Performance
Shares of the company have lost 41.4% in the past year compared with the industry’s 27.8% decline.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Methanex currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).
Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are Kinross Gold CorporationKGC, Franco-Nevada Corporation FNV and Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.KL, each sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Kinross has an expected earnings growth rate of 210% for 2019. The company’s shares have surged 76.4% in the past year.
Franco-Nevada has a projected earnings growth rate of 39.3% for 2019. The company’s shares have rallied 48.8% in a year.
Kirkland Lake Gold has an estimated earnings growth rate of 93.4% for the current year. Its shares have moved up 132% in the past year.
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