First Majestic (AG) Q4 Earnings Miss, Revenues Improve Y/Y

First Majestic Silver Corp

.’s

AG

fourth-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings per share of 2 cents missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 7 cents by a margin of 71%. The company had reported earnings of 11 cents per share in the year-ago quarter.

Including one-time items, the company delivered a loss of 2 cents per share in the reported quarter against earnings per share of 16 cents in the year-earlier quarter.

First Majestic’s revenues improved 75% year over year to a record $205 million in the quarter under review on strong production numbers.

Average realized silver price was $24.18 per payable silver equivalent ounce in the quarter, down 2.8% year in year.

Total production in the fourth quarter of 2021 was a record 8.6 million silver equivalent ounces, consisting of 3.4 million ounces of silver and 67,411 ounces of gold. Total production in the prior-year quarter was 5.5 million silver equivalent ounces, comprising 3.5 million ounces of silver and 26,343 ounces of gold.

Operational Update

The company recorded cash costs per silver equivalent ounce of $12.32, up 89% from the year-ago quarter. Consolidated all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $17.26 per silver equivalent ounce came in 8% higher than the prior-year quarter.

First Majestic reported a mine-operating profit of $40.4 million in the quarter, compared with $43.7 million in the year-ago quarter.

Financial Position

First Majestic ended 2021 with $238 million of cash in hand, in line with the end of the prior-year period. Operating cash flow before movements in working capital and taxes were $177 million in 2021 compared with the prior year’s $107 million.

Fiscal 2021 Performance

First Majestic reported adjusted EPS of 2 cents in 2021 compared with 18 cents reported in the prior year. Earnings missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 10 cents. Including one-time items, the company reported a loss of 2 cents in 2021 against a profit of 11 cents in the previous year.

Sales surged 61% year over year to a record $584 million. The top line surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $575 million. This was driven by the acquisition of the Jerritt Canyon Gold Mine last year and a 19% increase in the realized average silver price.

First Majestic produced 12.8 million ounces of silver equivalent ounces in 2021, which missed the lower end of the company’s guidance range of 13.0 to 13.8 million silver ounces. Gold production was 192,353 ounces, within the higher end of the company’s guidance range of 181,000 to 194,000 ounces. This strong performance was primarily due to the processing of Ermitaño ore at the Santa Elena plant and strong silver and gold grades at San Dimas in the fourth quarter.

Price Performance

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Shares of the company have fallen 18.6% over the past year against the

industry

’s decline of 19.5%.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

First Majestic currently carries a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space are

The Mosaic Company


MOS

,

AdvanSix Inc.


ASIX

and

Allegheny Technologies Incorporated


ATI

.

Mosaic has a projected earnings growth rate of 106.4% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for MOS’ current-year earnings has been revised upward by 22.2% in the past 60 days.

Mosaic beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the trailing four quarters and missed once, the average surprise being 3.7%. MOS has rallied around 87.3% in a year. It currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see


the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here


.

AdvanSix has a projected earnings growth rate of 20.8% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ASIX’s current-year earnings has been revised 15.7% upward in the past 60 days.

AdvanSix beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in three of the trailing four quarters, while missing once, the average surprise being 23.6%. ASIX has surged 57.3% in a year. The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #1.

Allegheny, currently carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), has an expected earnings growth rate of 661.5% for the current year. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ATI’s earnings for the current year has been revised upward by 45.6% in the past 60 days.

Allegheny beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings in each of the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 127.2%. ATI has rallied around 21.3% over a year.

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