Why Alpha Metallurgical Resources Rallied as Much as 13.5% in Morning Trading Today
Shares of Alpha Metallurgical Resources (NYSE: AMR), one of the largest domestic producers of steelmaking coal, rose a dramatic 13.5% at one point in early trading on March 7. The big news was the company's pre-market earnings release. Investors seem to have approved of the news, which makes sense, but there were some things to worry about in there, too.
On the top line, Alpha Metallurgical posted coal revenue of $826.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. That's up from just $323 million in the same quarter of 2020, a huge improvement. The company has been revamping its business, selling assets and circling the wagons around its best operations, so the year-over-year view isn't, perhaps, the best comparison. That said, coal revenue in the third quarter of 2021 came in at $647 million, so even sequentially from the third quarter, top-line results were pretty impressive. What makes this last comparison even more impressive is that coal volumes fell 15% between the third and fourth quarter. A nearly 60% increase in the realized price of met coal is what drove coal revenue higher.
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Source Fool.com
