United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) reported its earnings report for the third quarter of 2013 this morning. The firm showed a loss of $1.79 billion, or $12.38 per share. The company suffered a large impairment charge on the value of its steel making business. The company warned Wall Street that it would write off part of the value of the business in this report.
Leading up to the release of this report analysts following United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) were looking for a loss of 45 cents per share from the company by consensus. Excluding the impairment charge to the company’s steel manufacturing business, today saw the company lose just 14 cents per share. On this morning’s market the company’s shares fell by around 2%.
US Steel earnings
In the same three months of last year United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) earned 14 cents per share on revenue totaling $4.3 billion. Revenue in this morning’s earnings report came to $4.13 billion. analysts were expecting the company to record revenue of $4.33 billion for the period.
The big loss in today’s results stem from the $1.8 billion goodwill charge it took on its business. The charge was broken down into two parts: $1 billion on the firm’s North American flat-rolled unit and $800 million at Texas plants. The company warned the market that it would record the loss earlier on this month, so that did not cause a massive drop in value this afternoon.
United States Steel Corporation performance
So far in 2013 United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) shares have dropped by just under 2%. The company’s stock has underperformed the S&P 500 by a large margin in the period, and investors are hoping that the company can turn itself around.
What United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) needs is for the economy to recover in a more holistic manner. The company’s future will be dictated by the state of the world’s demand. Executives at United States Steel Corporation (NYSE:X) will host a conference call to discuss these earnings at 3 PM EDT.
