PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) stock fell 0.85% (As on Apr 22, 11:32:43 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company’s bottom line came in at $18 million, compared with $378 million, in last year’s first quarter. Performance Coatings net sales increased primarily due to selling price increases across all businesses and acquisition-related sales. While demand remained strong in most end-use markets, raw material availability continued to constrain sales in many businesses, with the largest impacts in architectural coatings Americas and Asia Pacific, traffic solutions, and automotive refinish. The demand for architectural coatings do-it-yourself products continued to moderate in all major regions compared to elevated first-quarter 2021 levels. Sales volumes in the U.S. architectural coatings business benefited modestly from the launch of the recently announced expanded relationship with The Home Depot in the professional paint channel, but the inventory load-in was constrained due to raw material availability. Automotive refinish net sales grew by a high-single-digit percentage with higher selling prices and sales volumes that continued to outpace industry growth. Aerospace sales volumes were up by a mid-teen-percentage compared to first quarter 2021.
Moreover, Industrial Coatings net sales increased primarily due to selling price increases across all businesses and acquisition-related sales, partially offset by lower sales volumes in comparison to strong, pandemic-related volume recovery in the prior year. Most businesses were also impacted by lower economic activity in China due to the Winter Olympics and growing COVID-19 restrictions later in the quarter.
PPG in the first quarter of FY 22 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $1.37, beating the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $1.11, according to figures compiled by Thomson Reuters. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 11.1 percent to $4.31 billion in the first quarter of FY 22. At quarter end, the company had cash and short-term investments totaling about $1 billion. Net debt was $6.1 billion, up by about $600 million from the end of the fourth quarter 2021.
The company provided EPS guidance of $1.600-$1.900 for the second quarter of FY 22, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus EPS estimate of $1.920. Q2 FY 22 aggregate sales volumes is expected to be down a low-to-mid-single-digit percentage on a year-over-year basis. Corporate expenses are expected to be $60 million to $70 million and net interest expense is expected to be $26 million to $30 million for the period.