Methanex's (MEOH) Earnings And Revenues Miss Estimates In Q2

Methanex Corporation (NASDAQ:MEOH) recorded profit (attributable to shareholders) of $50.2 million or 51 cents per share in the second quarter of 2019, down from $111.4 million or $1.36 in the year-ago quarter.

Adjusted earnings per share (barring one-time items) in the quarter were 34 cents, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 50 cents.

Revenues dropped roughly 22.7% year over year to $734.4 million in the quarter and missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $743 million.

Adjusted EBITDA tumbled 46.9% year over year to $146 million.

Operational Highlights

Production in the quarter totaled 1,820,000 tons, up 10.4% year over year. Total sales volumes were 2,601,000 tons, down nearly 6% year over year.

Average realized price for methanol was $326 per ton in the quarter, down 19.5% from $405 per ton in the prior-year quarter.

Per the company, overall costs rose on a lower proportion of Methanex-produced methanol sales in spite of decline in costs per ton in the second quarter. Additionally, it also incurred higher logistics costs along with selling and administrative expenses.

Financials

For the quarter, cash flow from operating activities was $117 million, down 56.7% year over year. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $228 million, down around 28.1% year over year.

Methanex returned $75 million to shareholders through dividend and share repurchases during the second quarter. As of Jun 30, 2019, it repurchased 1,069,893 common shares of the 3,863,298 authorized, for around $53 million since the start of its normal course issuer bid on Mar 18, 2019.

Outlook

Methanex expects methanol prices to be sequentially lower in the third quarter. It also expects its production levels to be similar on a sequential comparison basis in the third quarter. Moreover, the company expects adjusted EBITDA to be lower in the third quarter sequentially.

Price Performance

Shares of Methanex have lost 52.8% in the past year compared with the industry’s 40.1% decline.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Methanex currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are SSR Mining Inc (NASDAQ:SSRM) , Alamos Gold Inc (TSX:AGI) and Arconic Inc (NYSE:ARNC) , all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

SSR Mining has an expected earnings growth rate of 134.8% for 2019. The company’s shares have surged 58.7% in the past year.

Alamos Gold has projected earnings growth rate of 260% for the current year. The company’s shares have gained 35.6% in a year’s time.

Arconic has an estimated earnings growth rate of 38.2% for the current year. Its shares have moved up 12.2% in the past year.

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