Weyerhaeuser Posts Revenue Decline

Weyerhaeuser Co. reported a decline in fourth-quarter profit as revenue decreased across all of units amid lower prices.

Shares of Weyerhaeuser fell 0.7% to $25.55 in morning trading in New York. The timberland manager and wood producer did beat revenue estimates and match earnings estimates.

In November, Weyerhaeuser said it would buy Plum Creek Timber Co., creating a company that would hold the largest private ownership of timberland in the U.S. Lumber futures have risen 2% in the past three months but are still below recent 2013 highs.

Revenue in its wood products unit, its largest business, fell 2.5% to $943 million as sales in its cellulose fibers unit decreased 1.5% because of lower prices. Revenue in its timberland segment fell 7.2% as fee-harvest volumes decreased because of wet weather.

The company expects "significantly lower earnings" in its cellulose fibers segment because of decreased sales in pulp, seasonally lower pulp volumes and additional maintenance expenses due to a scheduled outage.

The company said, as previously announced, it was continuing the strategic review of the cellulose fibers unit.

Weyerhaeuser also wrote down the value of a joint venture and took a resulting $84 million accounting charge.

Fourth-quarter profit fell to $59 million, or 11 cents a share, from $166 million, or 31 a share, a year earlier. Excluding charges, including the asset impairment and Plum Creek merger-related costs, the company earned 24 cents a share, compared with 27 cents a year earlier. Sales fell 3% to $1.73 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had predicted 24 cents a share in profit on revenue of $1.73 billion.

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 05, 2016 10:25 ET (15:25 GMT)

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