Revenue during the quarter went up marginally by 1.83 percent to $872.98 million from $857.28 million in the previous year period. Gross margin for the quarter contracted 216 basis points over the previous year period to 27.46 percent. Total expenses were 80.09 percent of quarterly revenues, up from 79.82 percent for the same period last year. That has resulted in a contraction of 28 basis points in operating margin to 19.91 percent.

Operating income for the quarter was $173.80 million, compared with $173.04 million in the previous year period.

However, the adjusted EBITDA for the quarter stood at $230.16 million compared with $244.04 million in the prior year period. At the same time, adjusted EBITDA margin contracted 210 basis points in the quarter to 26.36 percent from 28.47 percent in the last year period.

Tom Hill, chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Vulcan's operating momentum remains strong. While our fourth quarter results reflect a mid-December ramp-down of the construction season in many of our markets, which was earlier than in 2015, our solid full year results and outlook for 2017 demonstrate a continuation of longer-term trends in volume recovery, price increases, and margin expansion. Our daily aggregates shipment rates in October and November exceeded the prior year's strong comparison before falling off in the second half of December. In addition, and important to our forward outlook, key measures of both public and private construction starts have improved steadily since July. Adjusted for product and geographic mix, aggregates pricing growth over last year's fourth quarter was approximately 7 percent, in line with the full-year trend. Several temporary and timing-related factors combined to impact fourth quarter unit margin and flow-through comparisons. Full year results better represent the underlying trend and our forward expectations. For 2017, we expect to deliver Adjusted EBITDA of between $1.125 and $1.225 billion. We expect aggregates shipments to grow between 5 percent and 8 percent and average selling prices to increase between 5 percent and 7 percent. The flow-through of freight-adjusted revenues to gross profit in our Aggregates segment should remain in line with the longer-term trend of greater than 60 percent. We remain focused on continuous, compounding improvement in profitability and cash flows, and expect them to continue - not only for 2017 but for years to come."

The company has spent $365.08 million cash to meet investing activities during the year as against cash outgo of $309.74 million in the last year. It has incurred net capital expenditure of $326.83 million on net basis during the year, up 16.29 percent or $45.79 million from year ago.

The company has spent $304.58 million cash to carry out financing activities during the year as against cash outgo of $67.01 million in the last year period.

Cash and cash equivalents stood at $258.99 million as on Dec. 31, 2016, down 8.83 percent or $25.07 million from $284.06 million on Dec. 31, 2015.

Working capital increases marginally
Vulcan Materials Company has recorded an increase in the working capital over the last year. It stood at $764.94 million as at Dec. 31, 2016, up 4.63 percent or $33.83 million from $731.11 million on Dec. 31, 2015. Current ratio was at 3.16 as on Dec. 31, 2016, up from 3.07 on Dec. 31, 2015.