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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Huntsman Corp., the nation's fifth-biggest chemical manufacturer, reported earning $69 million for the first quarter of 2006.
It was the first quarterly profit posted by the company, which has headquarters in Salt Lake City and Houston, since it went public in February 2005.
Earnings per share were 30 cents. A year ago, Huntsman posted a first-quarter loss of $52.4 million, or 43 cents per share.
Peter R. Huntsman, president and chief executive, said the results in the first quarter of 2006 were a marked improvement over the hurricane-affected results in the fourth quarter of last year.
"Sales volumes improved across most of our differentiated (specialty chemical) product lines," he said Friday during a conference call.
Sales for the quarter, however, fell 4.8 percent, to $3.19 billion, the result primarily of a decline in demand for commodity chemicals as energy-related costs rose faster than prices.
Analysts overall were projecting that earnings would come in 2 cents higher than the 30 cents posted by the company.
Although earning per share fell short of the consensus, the shortfall was focused on the "low multiple (and soon-to-be-spun off) base chemicals business," Deutsche Bank analyst David Begleiter said in a report Friday. "Polyurethanes, the crown jewel of the higher-multiple differentiated business, did better than expected."
The company reported that earnings from its commodity chemicals units, which are focused on producing ethylene and propylene, dropped to $20.1 million in the first quarter. A year earlier, the company recorded earnings of $161.6 million from its base chemicals business.
Frustrated with the continuing low price of its shares, the company in March announced it was preparing a strategy to help boost the value of its chemical businesses for its stockholders.
Four weeks after Huntsman's board spurned offers to buy the entire company, saying the bids were too low, the company revealed plans to either sell its struggling commodity chemicals units or spin them off into a new company.
The company's management hopes stock-market investors will place a higher value on shares of the remaining -- and more prosperous -- specialty chemicals operations that are capable of delivering more stable revenue and profits.
During the conference call Friday, Peter Huntsman said the company continues to aggressively pursue that objective.
"We know our stock is undervalued, and we don't like it," said Jon Huntsman, the company's founder and chairman of the board.
Huntsman shares closed Friday at $19.65, up 30 cents for the day. Volume was 1.7 million shares.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
