PPG Industries Q2 Profit Up 13% On Higher Sales, Fewer Charges

(RTTNews) - Coatings and specialty products maker PPG Industries, Inc. (PPG) on Thursday reported a 13 percent increase in profit for the second quarter from last year, reflecting higher sales and fewer one-time charges.

Charles Bunch, chairman and chief executive officer of PPG said, "We realized the highest growth in automotive OEM and various general industrial and specialty coatings end-use markets, as we continue to benefit from solid end-use market demand supplemented by customer adoption of new PPG technologies."

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based PPG reported second-quarter net income attributable to the company of $386 million or $2.75 per share, up from $341 million or $2.35 per share in the prior-year quarter.

The latest quarter's results include U.S. pension plan settlement costs of $0.02 per share and acquisition-related costs of $0.01 per share. The prior-year quarter's results included acquisition-related costs of $0.09 per share.

Excluding non-recurring items, adjusted net income from continuing operations for the latest quarter was $398 million or $2.83 per share, compared to $331 million or $2.28 per share in the same period last year.

On average, 17 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $2.77 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net sales for the quarter grew 5 percent to $4.08 billion from $3.88 billion in the same quarter last year. Analysts' had a consensus revenue estimate of $4.14 billion.

Performance coatings segment sales for the quarter grew 4 percent from the year-ago period to $2.34 billion as sales benefited evenly from volume, price, currency translation and acquisition-related gains.

Sales at the industrial coatings segment increased 7 percent from last year to $1.45 billion. The company noted that volume growth of 7 percent accounted for the net sales increase, with volume improvement realized in all regions.

Automotive original equipment manufacturer or OEM coatings delivered higher volumes in all regions, growing in aggregate by high-single-digit percentages that exceeded global industry demand growth rate of about 2 percent.

Sales for the glass segment also rose 7 percent to $289 million. Segment sales volume grew 5 percent and segment pricing improved more than 1 percent.

Bunch said, "Looking forward, we remain highly focused on deploying our strong cash position and balance sheet for additional earnings-accretive opportunities. We anticipate moderate global expansion and believe that our geographic diversity, coupled with our previous structural cost reductions, will allow us to continue to deliver excellent earnings performance from increased global demand."

PPG closed Wednesday's trading at $205.79, up $0.23 or 0.11 percent on a volume of 937,316 shares.