Alcoa stock slides on Q1 miss, company projects slight smaller aluminum deficit

Shares of Alcoa Corp. fell more than 1% in the extended session Wednesday after the alumina and aluminum producer reported a wider-than-expected adjusted quarterly loss and sales also missed views. Alcoa said it lost $199 million, or $1.07 a share, in the quarter, versus earnings of $195 million, or $1.04 a share, in the year-ago quarter. Adjusted for one-time items, the company lost $43 million, or 23 cents a share, versus earnings of $1.01 a share a year ago. Revenue fell to $2.7 billion from $3.1 billion a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet had expected an adjusted loss of 13 cents a share on sales of $2.8 billion. "We improved our operations in the first quarter, even as alumina and aluminum prices weakened," Chief Executive Roy Harvey said in a statement. The company kept its prediction of a surplus for the alumina market and a deficit for the aluminum market this year, the latter due to lower demand from China. For 2019, Alcoa projected a global aluminum deficit between 1.5 million metric tons and 1.9 million metric tons, down from last quarter's full-year estimate of between 1.7 million and 2.1 million metric tons. For alumina, Alcoa projected a surplus between 200,000 metric tons to 1 million metric tons. For bauxite, Alcoa expects a slightly larger surplus for the year compared with a prior estimate, with stockpile growth ranging between 8 million and 12 million metric tons. Shares of Alcoa ended the regular trading day flat.

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