Floods, Ag Challenges Hit Compass Minerals
There's been a lot of uncertainty in the Farm Belt this year. On one hand, flooding has hit large parts of the U.S. Midwest, causing devastation in many areas within the region. On the other, trade tensions have had dramatic impacts on exports of U.S. farm goods. Road-salt specialist Compass Minerals International (NYSE: CMP) might not seem like the most likely company to get hit hard by that uncertainty, but much of its logistical footprint is in areas hit by flooding and its plant-nutrition business has had to overcome headwinds from its agricultural customers.
Coming into Tuesday's second-quarter financial report, Compass investors wanted to see modest gains in revenue and a narrowing of losses from previous periods. Unfortunately, Compass wasn't able to deliver on either front, as those problematic issues weighed more heavily on its results than many had expected.
Compass Minerals' second-quarter results were disappointing. Sales were down 1%, to $245.2 million, falling short of the 2% growth that most of those following the stock had looked for. Losses widened by more than half from year-ago levels, to $11.8 million. Even after accounting for some extraordinary items, Compass' adjusted loss of $0.29 per share was a lot bigger than the consensus forecast among investors for a loss of just $0.14 per share.
Quelle Fool.com
