Alcoa: After-Hours Trading

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Alcoa(AA) jumped in late trades on Tuesday after the Dow component delivered a surprise profit in its fiscal first quarter.

The aluminum producer reported earnings from continuing operations of $94 million, or 10 cents a share, on revenue of $6.01 billion. The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters was for a loss of 4 cents a share on revenue of $5.77 billion.

The company attributed the better than expected results to "strong productivity improvements across all businesses, higher realized prices for aluminum, and improved volume and mix."

The stock was last quoted at $9.79, up 2%, on volume of 2.4 million, according to Nasdaq.com.

"Performance rebounded strongly this quarter due to our proactive cash sustainability actions, our relentless focus on profitable growth, and stabilizing markets," said Klaus Kleinfeld, Alcoa's chairman and CEO, in a statement. "We are successfully executing on our aggressive strategy to move down the cost curve in our upstream businesses, and drive to record profitability in our midstream and downstream businesses. Challenges remain in this economy, but we approach them better prepared than ever before."

Alcoa, the first component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average to report its results each quarter, also reaffirmed its outlook for growth of 7% in global aluminum demand in 2012.

Based on Tuesday's regular-session close at $9.31, Alcoa shares were up nearly 11% so far in 2012.

--Written by Michael Baron in New York.

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