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IP 1Q profit plunges
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April 18, 2001: 7:03 a.m. ET
Dow component meets lowered forecasts even though earnings drop 90%
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - International Paper Co. said Wednesday that first-quarter profit plunged, although the weaker results matched lowered Wall Street forecasts for the period.
The company earned $24 million, or 5 cents a diluted share, excluding special items. The company earned $249 million, or 60 cents a share, on the same basis in the first quarter of 2000.
While results met the consensus estimate from the research firm First Call, the earnings per share forecast stood at 15 cents before a March 29 warning.
With special items, IP reported a loss of $44 million, or 9 cents a share, compared with net income of $378 million, or 91 cents a share, it reported a year earlier.
The world's largest paper and forest products company blamed the drop in profit on the slowdown in the U.S. economy, coupled with the strong value of the dollar, which it said hurt its competitiveness in overseas sales. The company temporarily closed several large facilities early in the quarter, cutting production by nearly a half-million tons, but it said those shutdowns should not have an impact on second-quarter results.
Still analysts are expecting lower earnings for the rest of the year, with second-quarter forecasts now standing at 6 cents a share, down from the 75 cents a share IP earned in the year-ago period.
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Revenue rose to $6.9 billion in the quarter from $6.4 billion in the year- earlier period. The sales figures were helped by the June 2000 acquisition of Champion International, which was not included in year-earlier sales figures.
Shares of IP (IP: Research, Estimates), a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, gained 5 cents to $37.10 in trading Tuesday. 
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