American Axle & Manufacturing (AXL), a company that quite literally helps underpin the auto industry, reported encouraging quarterly results Friday morning. Subsequent to that, investors bid up its stock during the day, to the point where it closed nearly 5% higher in price. That made it an outlier, as the S&P 500 index's rise was a far more modest 0.5%.
A convincing double beat
For its second quarter, American Axle posted sales of $1.63 billion, which was slightly higher than the $1.57 billion it earned in the same period of 2023. Net income based on generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) saw quite the leap, doubling and then some to more than $18 million against the year-ago profit of $8 million. On a per-share, non-GAAP (adjusted) basis, the specialty auto components manufacturer earned $0.19.
American Axle cruised to easy beats on both the top and bottom lines with those results. On average, analysts tracking the company's stock were estimating it would book $1.59 billion in revenue and only $0.11 per share in adjusted net income.
In its earnings release, American Axle quoted CEO David Dauch as attributing the growth in key fundamentals to "positive contributions from volume and mix, and continued operational performance."
Full-year targets adjusted
American Axle adjusted some of its financial targets for the entirety of 2024. It now believes its sales will come in at $6.1 billion to $6.3 billion. This represents a tightening of the company's former outlook of $6.05 billion to $6.35 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization also received a change; management feels this will land at $705 million to $755 million, up from the preceding range of $685 million to $750 million. The company did not provide any net income forecasts.
