American Vanguard Corporation (NYSE:AVD), today announced financial results for the third quarter and nine month period ended September 30, 2011.
Fiscal 2011 Third Quarter Financial Highlights - versus Fiscal 2010 Third Quarter Performance
- Net sales improved from $68.3 million to $73.8 million, an increase of 8%
- Net income improved from $3.6 million to $4.6 million, an increase of 28%
- Earnings per diluted share increased from $0.13 to $0.16
Fiscal 2011 Nine Month Financial Highlights - versus Fiscal 2010 Nine Month Performance
- Net sales improved from $167.1 million to $221.6 million, an increase of 33%
- Net income improved from $7.1 million to $15.6 million, an increase of 120%
- Earnings per diluted increased from $0.26 to $0.56
Note: Details are available in the financial schedules attached to this press release
Eric Wintemute, Chairman and CEO of American Vanguard, stated: "We are pleased to report another strong performance for the third quarter that reflects the excellent positioning of our product portfolio, especially our broad range of insecticides. In granular soil insecticides, we continue to expand our international sales penetration with Mocap® and Nemacur®, and we have successfully captured additional business with Thimet® in peanuts and sugarcane replacing a competing product that has been withdrawn from the U.S. market."
Mr. Wintemute continued: "Recently, we have been seeing considerable interest in our many products for the domestic corn market. In June we announced a significant agreement with Monsanto for the co-marketing of our post-emergent corn herbicide Impact® in conjunction with their Roundup® Ready glyphosate program. We are also seeing corn growers show greater interest in the yield enhancement benefits of corn soil insecticides for protection of their crops in areas where pest pressure is not adequately handled by the use of genetic defenses alone. As the supplier with the most complete line of soil insecticide products as well as the closed delivery systems best equipped to dispense them, we are poised to satisfy this growing demand."
Mr. Wintemute concluded: "Our focus on profitability can be seen in the improvement of our third quarter gross profit margins, from 37% in 2010 to 42% in 2011. Overall our manufacturing operations have experienced higher utilization rates this year resulting in improved coverage of facility fixed costs. We continue to explore the acquisition of appropriately-priced, branded products and our new potato sprout inhibitor SmartBlock® is scheduled to be commercialized during the next 90 days. We are gearing up to take full advantage of the abundant opportunities emerging in domestic corn as well as in other crop markets that favor our extensive offering of granular soil insecticides. Despite the need to overcome some supply constraints in Mocap, and some regulatory constraints with our PCNB fungicide, we are confident that American Vanguard will finish 2011 with a strong financial performance."