Eastman Chemical (NYSE: EMN) reported Q1 EPS of $2.13, $0.09 better than the analyst estimate of $2.04. Revenue for the quarter came in at $2.41 billion versus the consensus estimate of $2.33 billion.

“We delivered outstanding first-quarter results, with adjusted EPS up 20 percent compared with first quarter 2019 and up 5 percent compared with strong first-quarter 2020 results,” said Mark Costa, Board Chair and CEO. “First-quarter results included approximately $30 million of costs from the impact of Winter Storm Uri. The combination of continued disciplined operational execution, the diversity of our end markets, and the benefit of our innovation-driven growth model positioned Eastman well for the return of economic growth. In addition, our focus on cash generation resulted in record first-quarter free cash flow that was well above last year. While economic growth has returned, the threat from COVID-19 persists, and we remain diligent in our efforts to keep our employees safe and maintain the operational integrity of our facilities.”

GUIDANCE:

Eastman Chemical sees FY2021 EPS of $8.25-$8.75, versus the consensus of $7.95.

Commenting on the outlook for full-year 2021, Costa said: “Our team did an outstanding job mitigating the impact of Winter Storm Uri, enabling us to continue to serve our customers and significantly contributing to our strong first-quarter results. The momentum from the first quarter continues in the second quarter as we benefit from our innovation-driven growth model, strong market recovery, and lower operating costs from our operations transformation program. With our strong first-quarter results, we now expect 2021 adjusted EPS to be between $8.25 and $8.75. We also expect free cash flow to approach $1.1 billion, which would be the fifth consecutive year of free cash flow above $1 billion.”

The full-year 2021 projected earnings exclude any non-core, unusual or nonrecurring items. Our financial results forecasts do not include non-core items (such as mark-to-market pension and other postretirement benefit gain or loss and asset impairments and restructuring charges) or any unusual or non-recurring items, and we accordingly are unable to reconcile projected earnings excluding non-core and any unusual or non-recurring items to reported GAAP earnings without unreasonable efforts.

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Eastman Chemical (EMN) click here.