Plum Creek Timber Q4 Results Top Estimates

(RTTNews) - Real estate investment trust Plum Creek Timber Co., Inc. (PCL) reported Monday a profit for the fourth quarter that grew from last year, reflecting strong double-digit revenue growth. Both earnings per share and quarter revenues topped analysts' expectations. The company also provided earnings guidance for the first quarter and full-year 2015. The company noted that higher earnings from its timber business segments were partially offset by a decrease in reported real estate income.

Seattle, Washington-based Plum Creek reported net income of $68 million or $0.39 per share for the fourth quarter, higher than $40 million or $0.24 per share in the prior-year quarter.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter would have been $0.38 per share, compared to $0.31 per share in the year-ago quarter.

On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.34 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenues for the quarter grew to $428 million from $331 million in the same quarter last year, and topped eleven Wall Street analysts' consensus estimate of $411.21 million.

Timber revenues increased to $204 million from $182 million, real estate revenue doubled to $120 million from $59 million, and manufacturing revenue grew to $93 million from $83 million last year.

Looking ahead to the first quarter, the company forecasts earnings in a range of $0.20 per share to $0.25 per share for the first quarter, and in the range of $1.05 per share to $1.30 per share for fiscal 2015.

Street is currently looking for earnings of $0.27 per share for the first quarter, and $1.27 per share for the full-year 2015.

The company also said it expects real estate segment sales between $100 million and $110 million for the first quarter and between $250 million and $300 million for fiscal 2015.

"Strategic portfolio management and disciplined capital allocation will be key components of our strategy for shareholder value creation in 2015. Operationally, we will continue to closely monitor our timber markets and will respond appropriately when local market dynamics support stronger pricing," CEO Rick Holley said in a statement.

PCL closed Monday's regular trading at $44.89, up $0.14 or 0.31% on a volume of 1.14 million shares.