St Joe Co. Earnings: After Three Quarters of Losses, Back to Profitability

St Joe Co. (NYSE:JOE) climbed to a profit in the second quarter and beat Wall Street’s expectations in the process. The St Joe Company is a real estate development company which is engaged in residential, commercial and industrial development and rural land sales.

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St Joe Co. Earnings Cheat Sheet

Results: Reported a profit of $200,000 (0 cents per diluted share) in the quarter. St Joe Co. had a net loss of $13.3 million or a loss 14 cents per share in the year-earlier quarter.

Revenue: Rose 20.2% to $30.4 million from the year-earlier quarter.

Actual vs. Wall St. Expectations: St Joe Co. beat the mean analyst estimate of a loss of 6 cents per share. It beat the average revenue estimate of $19.8 million.

Quoting Management: Park Brady, St. Joe’s Chief Executive Officer, said “Our second quarter results reflect our efforts to stabilize the company. I’m encouraged by the trends in our residential, timber and resorts businesses. With $170 million in cash we’re in a position to either hold or opportunistically reposition our assets to create additional shareholder value. We plan to continue to invest in those projects that we believe meet our risk-adjusted return criteria such as our holdings in Venture Crossings at the Airport, the Port of St. Joe, Breakfast Point, our primary home community in Northwest Florida, and Rivertown, our primary home community in Northeast Florida. We’re continuing to study our other real estate assets and markets for growth opportunities.”

Key Stats:

The company reported a year-over-year revenue increase last quarter, ending a three-quarter streak of decline. Revenue fell 58.4% in the first quarter, 46.6% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 1.3% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

The company’s profit in the latest quarter follows losses in the three previous quarters. The company reported a net loss of $874,000 in the first quarter, a loss of $328.6 million in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and a loss of $2.4 million in the third of the last fiscal year.

The company has beaten estiamtes for two quarters in a row. In the first quarter, it topped expectations with a loss of -1 cents versus a mean estimate of a loss of 8 cents per share.

Looking Forward: The average estimate for the third quarter remains unchanged at 5 cents a share. The average estimate hasn’t changed from 11 cents per share for the fiscal year.

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(Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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