(Reuters) – PPG Industries missed first-quarter revenue estimates on Thursday due to sluggish demand in its industrial and performance coating businesses.
Quarterly net sales fell about 2% to $4.31 billion from a year earlier. Analysts had expected $4.43 billion.
Net sales of PPG’s industrial coatings segment fell 3% to $1.70 billion, from $1.75 billion a year earlier, due to lower selling prices and slightly lower sales volumes.
Its performance coatings segment’s net sales fell about 1% to $2.61 billion in the quarter, hit by lower sales volumes.
The company reported an adjusted profit of $1.86 per share for the quarter ended March 31, in line with analysts’ average estimates.
The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based firm reaffirmed its 2024 adjusted earnings per share forecast in the range of $8.34 and $8.59.
However, the company’s adjusted earnings forecast for the second quarter is between $2.42 per share and $2.52 per share, below analysts’ estimate of $2.55 per share.
The industrial coatings maker said it benefited from businesses in Mexico and China but was impacted by lower demand in Europe, including an early Easter holiday which reduced the number of selling days in March, and ongoing tepid global demand for industrial coatings.
“Looking ahead, while global industrial production remains at low absolute levels, we believe that demand in China for our products will deliver solid organic growth,” said PPG CEO Tim Knavish.
PPG also authorized a $2.5 billion share repurchase program.
The company said it is executing on the strategic reviews of the architectural coatings business in the U.S. and Canada and the global silicas products business, and targets to “determine a path forward for each of these assessments no later than the third quarter.”
PPG had said in February that it would review strategic alternatives for its architectural coatings business in the United States and Canada, less than two months after the paints and coatings maker said it was reviewing alternatives for its silica products business.
(Reporting by Roshia Sabu in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
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