Cooper Tire & Rubber Q1 Profit Down 19%, But Beats View; Revenues Miss

(RTTNews) - Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. (CTB) on Friday reported a 19 percent decline in profit for the first quarter from last year on lower sales. However, earnings per share for the quarter beat analysts' expectations, while revenues missed their estimates.

Net income attributable to the company for the first quarter was $45.43 million or $0.71 per share, down from $56.08 million or $0.87 per share in the prior-year period. On average, three analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.49 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Cooper Tire's net sales for the first quarter declined 8 percent to $796.46 million from $861.68 million in the year-ago period. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $836.15 million for the quarter.

North America Tire Operations net sales for the quarter declined 6 percent from last year to $563.49 million, reflecting higher unit volumes that were offset by unfavorable price and mix. Unit shipments for the North American segment increased 5 percent.

International Tire Operations net sales decreased 9 percent from the year-ago period to $309.95 million, driven by lower unit volumes as well as unfavorable pricing and mix. These were partly offset by $11 million of favorable currency effects. Unit shipments for the International segment decreased 2 percent, with declines in both Asia and Europe.

However, Cooper Tire noted that raw material prices for the quarter decreased by 4 percent from the preceding fourth quarter.

Looking ahead, Roy Armes, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of Cooper Tire, said, "We have strong momentum moving into the second quarter. It is expected that our TBR volumes in the United States will rebound as Roadmaster truck tire production resumed earlier this year at CCT."

Cooper Tire expects raw-material prices in the second quarter of 2014 be roughly flat sequentially compared to the first quarter. The company's long-term raw material outlook is for prices to generally trend higher with periods of volatility.

CTB closed Thursday's trading at $25.74, up $0.59 or 2.35 percent on a volume of 882,185 shares.