Omaha World Herald wrote:
Valmont profits jump 74 percent in third quarter
Third-quarter profits soared 74 percent at Valmont Industries as stabilizing steel prices, recent acquisitions and an improving utility market boosted sales.
The Omaha-based manufacturer of irrigation equipment and engineered support structures saw earnings for the quarter ended Sept. 25 rise to $7.1 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, from last year's $4.1 million, or 17 cents per diluted share.
Sales for the quarter rose 30 percent to $262.9 million from $202.5 million a year ago.
Mogens Bay, chairman and CEO of Valmont, cited three factors that drove third-quarter gains:
• Improved pricing margins and strong sales to commercial customers helped Valmont's engineered support structure business, which manufactures steel poles and towers for infrastructure. Profits for the segment rose 48 percent to $7.8 million.
• The acquisition of Newmark International continued to boost the company's concrete support structures segment, which saw record sales following the hurricanes that hit Florida.
• The tubing segment's profits more than doubled to $4.2 million as Valmont improved its market position by maintaining adequate steel supplies, luring customers seeking a stable supply.
Bay said that he expects a strong fourth-quarter performance but that he doesn't expect to match third-quarter results, as costs for farmers may lead to weaker demand for the company's irrigation equipment.
"The strong positive trends in most of our businesses should outweigh any decline in irrigation. We are expecting positive trends in our performance to continue through 2005," Bay said in a statement.
Nine-month results lagged last year's performance, reflecting a $6.1 million second-quarter charge to prepay debt and the company's effort to keep ahead of rising steel prices earlier this year.
Year-to-date earnings fell 13.5 percent to $15.4 million, or 63 cents per diluted share, from 2003 nine-month earnings of $17.8 million, or 73 cents per diluted share.
Sales for the first nine months rose 22 percent, from $610.5 million in 2003 to $744.8 million in 2004.
