Green Plains reports fourth-quarter profit

Source: By Russell Hubbard, Omaha World-Herald • Posted: Thursday, February 9, 2017

Omaha-based Green Plains, the nation’s second-largest ethanol producer, said Wednesday that it had a profit in the fourth quarter on higher margins, after a loss a year earlier.

The operator of 17 ethanol plants nationwide said net income was $18.6 million, or 47 cents a share, from a year-earlier loss of $3.6 million, or 9 cents a share. Revenue rose 26 percent to $932 million. The earnings per-share exceeded the 38 cents forecast by analysts surveyed by FactSet.

The company said the profit margin earned from distilling corn into ethanol more than doubled from a year earlier to 24 cents a gallon.

Shares of the company, which released earnings after the close of stock-market trading, rose $1.25, or 5.4 percent Wednesday, to close at $24.45. The shares have climbed 40 percent in the past year.

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