Commercial Metals Co. (NYSE:CMC) swung to a quarterly profit, spurred by higher volumes and selling prices at most of its operations. Earnings and sales for the second quarter also beat Wall Street projections.
Going into the third quarter, the Irving, Texas-based company said it is "encouraged by the strong backlogs" for its domestic operations and it is "optimistic" about their performance if scrap prices remain stable.
Earnings were $29 million or $0.25 per share for the second quarter, compared with a loss of $46 million or $0.40 per share in the year-ago quarter.
Sales rose 11 percent to $2.0 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected earnings of $0.09 per share on sales of $1.98 billion.
The company is engaged in recycling, manufacturing, fabricating, and distributing steel and metal products. CMC processes scrap metals for use as a raw material by manufacturers of new metal products. The company operates in five segments: Americas Recycling, Americas Mills Americas Fabrication, International Mills and International Marketing and Distribution.
The stock, which has been trading between $8.64 and $17.84 over the past year, closed Tuesday's regular trading at $14.40.