Alcoa reported third-quarter earnings that were double estimates and announced its first share buyback in more than a decade in a sign that the top US aluminum producer is weathering the trade war.
Shares jumped 4.8% at 5:05 p.m. in New York as the company said it would buy $200-million of its stock, the first repurchase since 2007, when the manufacturer was still a combined commodity and metal-parts maker, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Alcoa split from its auto- and jet-components business in late 2016.
“By reducing complexity, driving returns, and strengthening the balance sheet, we’ve made Alcoa a much stronger company even as commodity markets remain volatile,” CEO Roy Harvey said in a statement Wednesday after the close of regular trading in New York.
The company earned 63c a share after adjusting for one-time items, topping the 30c average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The buyback comes even as Pittsburgh-based Alcoa trimmed its demand forecast for the global aluminum market, a reduction the company said was driven by China.
“We continue to see that the world is a pretty uncertain place,” Harvey said in an interview following the earnings release.