Calgon Carbon (CCC) Q3 Earnings & Revenues Trail Estimates

Calgon Carbon (NYSE:CCC) logged a profit of $6.4 million or 13 cents per share in third-quarter 2016, a roughly 47% drop from $12.1 million or 23 cents per share recorded a year ago. Earnings per share missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 14 cents.

Calgon Carbon raked in revenues of $124 million in the reported quarter, down around 7% year over year. Sales missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $127 million. Currency swings had a $0.5 million unfavorable impact on sales in the reported quarter.

Gross margin (excluding depreciation and amortization), in the reported quarter was 31.1%, compared with 36.2% in the year-ago quarter. The decline was partly due to lower volume of higher-margin products.

Segment Performance

Revenues from the company’s core Activated Carbon and Service segment decreased roughly 7% year over year to $112.5 million in the reported quarter. Sales were hurt by lower sales of powdered activated carbon for removing mercury from coal-fired power plant emissions in the environmental air market in North America, and reduced environmental water market sales. The division’s results were affected by ongoing global softness in industrial end markets.

The Equipment division’s revenues edged up around 1% year over year to $9.8 million as higher sales of carbon absorption equipment were masked by reduced ion exchange equipment and ballast water treatment system sales.

Sales from the Consumer segment slipped 15% year over year to $1.7 million in the quarter due to unfavorable currency impact.

Financial Position

Calgon Carbon ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $57.2 million, up around 3% year over year. Total debt was $102.3 million, up roughly 5% year over year.

Outlook

While Calgon Carbon is seeing weakness in global industrial end markets, the company said that it remains focused on strategic measures such as cost reduction actions and executing on opportunities in other areas of its diverse end markets that are benefiting from favorable market dynamics. The company noted that it is gaining considerable traction in the municipal water market from its efforts to address the removal of harmful perfluorinated compounds that are being found in many drinking water sources across the U.S.

Calgon Carbon currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Other Stocks to Consider

Other well-ranked companies in the industrial products space include Casella Waste Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CWST) , Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ:TTEK) and AO Smith Corp. (NYSE:AOS)

Casella Waste Systems sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 120.6% for the current year.

Tetra Tech has an expected earnings growth rate of around 15.2% for the current year. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

AO Smith carries a Zacks Rank #2 and has an expected earnings growth rate of around 16.2% for the current year.

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