* Q4 results beat estimates
* Sees Q1 results below estimates
Jan 29 (Reuters) - Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc (USAP.O) posted quarterly results that topped market estimates, helped by higher revenue fueled by a rise in shipments, but forecast weak first-quarter results on a drop in backlog and a planned two-week outage.
For the fourth quarter, the company’s net income dropped 72 percent $1.2 million, or 18 cents a share, from $4.4 million, or 65 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue rose 15 percent to $57.1 million, helped by a more than two-fold rise in shipments to forgers for the global power generation markets.
However, aerospace sales fell 5 percent, hurt by reduced demand and a lingering effect of the Boeing (BA.N) strike, Universal Stainless said.
Analysts, on average, were looking for earnings of 3 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $46.7 million, according to Reuters Estimates.
For the first quarter, the company forecast earnings in the range of breakeven to 10 cents a share, on sales of $32 million to $42 million.
Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 13 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $46.5 million.
The company attributed the low forecast to a fall in backlog in the December quarter, drop in raw material prices and an estimated expense of $300,000 due to a planned two-week melt shop outage.
Shares of the company closed at $15.29 Wednesday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Antonita Madonna Devotta in Bangalore; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
