(Reuters) - Alcoa Inc reported a stronger-than-expected increase in third-quarter profit on Wednesday as it benefited from higher aluminum prices and a strategic repositioning into metals other than aluminum.
Its shares rose 2 percent after-hours.
Alcoa?s strategy to boost value-added fabricated product output and broaden its footprint in other light-weight materials like nickel, titanium and lithium has helped offset prolonged weak underlying primary aluminum prices on the London Metal Exchange
Alcoa traditionally has been the first S&P 500 company to report quarterly results. Because it supplies several major industries, some see it as a bellwether for the broader U.S. economy, but its performance often diverges from its markets and the economy as a whole.
The company's net income was $149 million, or 12 cents a share, compared with $24 million, or 2 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose to $6.2 billion from $5.8 billion.
After the results were announced, the company's stock rose 32 cents in after-hours trading to $16.39.
Excluding the impact of special items, Alcoa's earnings were $370 million, or 31 cents a share for the three months ended September. Analysts expected earnings of 22.7 cents a share on revenue of $5.85 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
"This strong quarter is the direct result of our intense focus on repositioning our portfolio, and we?re just hitting our stride,? Alcoa Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld said in a statement.
For the second time this year, Alcoa increased its 2014 estimate of production growth for the North America commercial transportation market - an important end market for the company - to a range of 16 to 20 percent from a previous range of 10 to 14 percent in the second quarter.
Alcoa's stock price is up 50 percent so far this year, outperforming the broader market and aluminum prices.
After a 40 percent dive from April 2011 to early 2014, aluminum prices surged 27 percent in the seven months to the end of August to an 18-month peak. They have since given up some of those gains but are still up about 8 percent so far this year.
(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver and Allison Martell in Toronto; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)