US Steel tumbles after third-quarter EBITDA guidance misses forecasts

US Steel beat earnings forecasts, but its guidance for Q3 EBITDA was light.REUTERS/Stringer

• US Steel shares are tumbling on Thursday after the company provided guidance for third-quarter earnings that was weaker than analysts had expected. 
• Second-quarter earnings topped forecast, initially sending the shares higher in after-hours trading on Wednesday. 
• Watch US Steel trade in realtime here.

US Steel shares are tumbling on Thursday, down 9% after the company’s guidance for third-quarter earnings missed Wall Street’s expectations. 

Kevin Bradley, the chief financial officer, told analysts on the earnings call that the company expects third-quarter earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $525 million. That was lower than the $589.8 million that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected. 

Bradley added that Q3 EBITDA in Europe is expected to be lower due to planned outages. 

The steelmaker reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday that topped analysts’ expectations, and raised its full-year forecast for adjusted EBITDA to a range of $1.85 billion to $1.9 billion, up from $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion. This initially lifted the stock by as much as 6% in after-hours trading. 

“The success to date of our ongoing $2 billion asset revitalization program, as well as our earnings power in the
current market, makes us increasingly optimistic about future investments that will drive long-term profitable growth,” David Burritt, US Steel’s CEO, said in the earnings release. 

US Steel’s stock is down 7% this year. It had spiked right after several announcements from the Trump administration on steel tariffs, which are intended to boost the domestic steel industry.

“My view is that he [President Donald Trump] will continue to be supportive he gave every indication of that,” Burritt said on the earnings call. He added, “we don’t expect the president to blink.” 

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