Vulcan's 4Q profit nearly triples; shares jump

Vulcan Materials Co., which sells gravel, sand and other materials used in construction, said Thursday that its fourth-quarter net income nearly tripled thanks to the recovering residential construction industry.

Shares of Vulcan rose $5.74, or 9.6 percent, to $65.93 in afternoon trading. Earlier, its shares jumped to $67.97, their highest point since January 2009.

Vulcan CEO Don James said he expects 2014 to be a good year in the construction industry. He expects demand from residential and non-residential building, highways and other public infrastructure to increase from the previous year for the first time since 2004. Aggregates shipments for the year are expected to rise between 4 percent and 7 percent from the previous year, he said.

During the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, Vulcan said net income rose to $9.1 million, or 7 cents per share. That compares with net income of $3.5 million, or 3 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

Net sales excluding delivery revenues rose 14 percent to $652.9 million from $574.9 million. Its adjusted earnings from continuing operations amounted to 8 cents a share in the latest quarter.

Analysts expected an adjusted loss of 4 cents per share and net sales of $620.7 million, according to FactSet.

For 2013, the company reported earnings of 19 cents per share, compared with a loss of 41 cents per share in 2012. Net sales rose 9 percent to $2.63 billion in 2013 from $2.41 billion the year before.