*Q3 EPS 96 cents vs. 70 cents
*Street expected EPS of 89 cents
*Revenue down 24 percent to $3.23 bln
*Shares fall 1 percent
(Adds additional earnings details; Updates stock movement)
By Ernest Scheyder
NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (Reuters) - Coatings and chemicals maker
PPG Industries Inc
Although PPG posted a better-than-expected third quarter profit on cost cuts, the company expects sales at its units to dip later this year.
"Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, we anticipate only modest improvement in the overall economy," Chief Executive Officer Charles Bunch said in a statement.
That news was not received well on Wall Street, where investors sent shares of the Pittsburgh-based company down 1 percent to $61.
Nevertheless, the beat was seen as a positive indicator that the economy may have slowly begun to recover from its anemic performance earlier this year.
"We benefited from our aggressive cost-reduction actions, as well as a modest improvement in demand versus the first half of 2009 stemming from a very gradual recovery in the global economy," Bunch said.
For the quarter, the company posted net income of $159 million, or 96 cents per share, compared with $117 million, or 70 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Analysts had expected earnings of 89 cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates.
Excluding a one-time charge due to an asbestos settlement, the company posted adjusted income of $161 million, or 97 cents per share.
Revenue fell 24 percent to $3.23 billion, though results still beat the $3.13 billion in revenue analysts expected.
Part of that drop was due to PPG's sale of its stake in an automotive glass business, and a smaller part of the dip was due to currency differentials. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Derek Caney)