Valmont Industries' 1Q Profit Jumps 21 Percent

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Strong North American sales of steel and concrete structures for electric utilities helped the diversified manufacturer Valmont Industries Inc. post a 21 percent increase in first-quarter earnings.

The results reported after the market closed Thursday beat Wall Street expectations, and Valmont shares climbed $8.92, or 16.1 percent, to $64.22 in afternoon trading Friday.

For the three months ended March 28, net income rose to $35.9 million, or $1.37 per share, from $29.7 million, or $1.13 per share, a year earlier.

Sales climbed nearly 8 percent to $455.2 million from $422.3 million a year ago.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected profit of $1.08 per share on revenue of $454.12 million. Those estimates typically exclude one-time items.

Substantially higher sales of utility support structures and a modest increase in engineered support structures more than offset lower sales of the company's other products, Mogens C. Bay, Valmont's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.