Alon USA Energy, Inc. (ALJ) has reported an 87.80 percent plunge in profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2016. The company has earned $0.88 million, or $0.01 a share in the quarter, compared with $7.25 million, or $0.12 a share for the same period last year.
Revenue during the quarter grew 16.25 percent to $509.01 million from $437.87 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 471 basis points over the previous year period to 10.82 percent. Total expenses were 98.16 percent of quarterly revenues, up from 95.58 percent for the same period last year. That has resulted in a contraction of 258 basis points in operating margin to 1.84 percent.
Operating income for the quarter was $9.36 million, compared with $19.35 million in the previous year period.
However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $23.48 million compared with $33.21 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 297 basis points in the quarter to 4.61 percent from 7.58 percent in the last year period.
Alan Moret, chief executive officer, commented, "Our fourth quarter results reflected the weak refining margin environment that existed throughout 2016, which was exacerbated by high RINs prices negatively impacting our refinery operating margin. The Partnership declared a cash distribution of $0.11 per unit on February 9, 2017 related to our performance in the fourth quarter of 2016. We have been encouraged by the improvement in refining fundamentals that we saw at the end of 2016 and into 2017, including widened discounts for domestic crude relative to Brent and widened discounts in WTS relative to WTI Cushing. We have also been pleased to see RIN prices decline."
Operating cash flow drops significantly
Alon USA Energy, Inc. has generated cash of $78.12 million from operating activities during the year, down 67.42 percent or $161.63 million, when compared with the last year.
The company has spent $33.35 million cash to meet investing activities during the year as against cash outgo of $29.55 million in the last year.
The company has spent $104.19 million cash to carry out financing activities during the year as against cash outgo of $183.57 million in the last year period.
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