PPG Industries (PPG) Reports In-Line Q4 EPS

PPG Industries (NYSE: PPG) reported Q4 EPS of $1.19, in-line with the analyst estimate of $1.19. Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.5 billion versus the consensus estimate of $3.55 billion.

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We delivered fourth quarter and full-year adjusted earnings-per-diluted-share growth despite modest and uneven global economic growth and the impact of significant unfavorable foreign currency translation,” said Michael H. McGarry, PPG chairman and chief executive officer. “We achieved these milestones due to improving sales volumes, continued aggressive cost management and ongoing earnings-accretive focused cash deployment.

“For the fourth quarter, our adjusted earnings per diluted share increased by 3 percent, aided by coatings volume growth of nearly 2 percent and despite significant currency translation headwinds,” McGarry said. “We achieved our highest volume growth in emerging regions, and by segment our Industrial Coatings grew global volumes by 5 percent with each business unit realizing similar growth rates. Global sales volumes declined less than 1 percent in Performance Coatings, as automotive refinish and architectural coatings growth was more than offset by lower protective and marine coatings demand stemming from further weakness in marine ship builds.

“For the full year, in addition to 7 percent adjusted earnings-per-share growth, we completed a variety of strategic actions to strengthen our company,” McGarry said. “These actions included continued business portfolio optimization through several acquisitions and divestitures and further minimization of legacy risk as we fully funded the Pittsburgh Corning asbestos trust and completed the annuitization of a large portion of U.S. and Canadian pension obligations. Additionally, we continued to invest in new product development and increased our spending focused on improving our organic growth results.

“Also, we delivered on our cash deployment commitments, achieving the upper end of our communicated two-year range,” McGarry said. “In 2015 and 2016 combined, we deployed more than $2.5 billion on acquisitions and share repurchases, including $650 million of share repurchases during the fourth quarter 2016. Our continued strong cash generation supported our cash deployment and growth investments for the full year, and our year-end cash and liquidity position provides us with continued financial flexibility going forward.

“As we begin 2017, we are operating in an uncertain and evolving macroeconomic and regulatory environment,” McGarry continued. “We expect improved momentum in overall global economic growth, including gradually improving growth rates in developed regions and continuing but uneven growth in emerging regions,” McGarry said.

“However, the timeline for this growth improvement remains uncertain, so we are aggressively managing all elements within our control and recently initiated a new business restructuring program targeting $125 million in annual savings,” McGarry said. “Additionally, we will continue our growth investments and we have announced targeted selling-price increases to combat recent inflationary cost pressures. Finally, we anticipate deploying an additional $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion of cash on acquisitions and share repurchases in years 2017 and 2018 combined, as we remain focused on shareholder value creation,” McGarry concluded.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on PPG Industries (PPG) click here.

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