Quanex shares jump after strong quarterly results

Quanex Building Products up on strong fiscal 3rd-quarter results, analyst raises price target

• On 1:42 pm EDT, Thursday September 3, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- Quanex Building Products Inc. rose Thursday after strong sales of aluminum sheets as well as door and window parts helped its fiscal third-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations and an analyst raised his price target on the stock.

For the three months ended in July, the Houston company's earnings from continuing operations slipped to $8.1 million, or 22 cents per share, from $8.8 million, or 24 cents per share, in the year-earlier period.

Excluding one-time items, Quanex earned 18 cents per share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, 1 cent per share. Such expectations typically exclude one-time items.

Sales for the quarter fell to $164 million from $240 million but still exceeded the $147.3 Wall Street anticipated.

Baird analyst Peter Lisnic maintained his "Outperform" rating on the shares and raised his price target to $15 from $12.

Quanex has a "strong free cash flow generation and ability to outperform soft end markets," Lisnic said.

Further, the company stands to gain from improved housing starts, increased remodeling, low cost aluminum and "bolt-on" acquisitions, he added.

He narrowed his estimate of earnings per share for the fiscal year, which ends in October, to a 21-cents per share loss from a loss of 50 cents per share. Analysts expect a per-share loss of 52 cents.

In afternoon trading, shares jumped $1.02, or 7.6 percent, to $14.39.

Buzz up!