Federal Way, Way, October 25--Weyerhaeuser Co. said its third-quarter earnings soared from a year ago, helped by favorable market conditions for its wood and paper products and big one-time gains.
For the third quarter ended Sept. 28, Weyerhaeuser reported earnings of $594 million, or $2.45 per share, compared with $82 million, or 37 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.
The results included three one-time gains, totaling $208 million, or 86 cents per share, after taxes and a one-time charge of $7 million, or 3 cents per share. The largest gain, $179 million, was for the sale of timberlands in Georgia.
Weyerhaeuser took several hefty charges in third-quarter 2003, totaling $62 million, or 28 cents per share.
Without the one-time items in the latest quarter, the Federal Way-based company would have earned $393 million, or $1.62 cents per share. Analyst polled by Thomson First Call had been expecting earnings of $1.40 per share, excluding the one-time items.
Revenue for the three-month period was $5.85 billion, up nearly 13 percent from $5.18 billion in third quarter of last year.
Steven Rogel, Weyerhaeuser's chairman, president and chief executive, said the company also benefited from ongoing efforts to be more cost-effective. "We have created meaningful, permanent changes that have made us more efficient," he said in a conference call with analysts.
In the current quarter, Weyerhaeuser executives warned they expect normal seasonal downturns, and that lumber and structural panel prices were expected to decline from third-quarter levels. But the company also said it expects earnings in its real estate and containerboard, packaging and recycling divisions to improve over the third quarter.
Overall, the company said it expects fourth-quarter earnings to improve from a year ago but to be down from the third quarter of this year.
Analysts were looking for earnings of $1.04 a share before items in the fourth quarter.
For the nine months ended Sept. 28, Weyerhaeuser reported earnings of $1.08 billion, or $4.62 per share, on revenue of $16.78 billion. That compares with earnings of $185 million, or 83 cents per share, on revenue of $14.73 billion a year earlier.
