Owens Corning, which makes insulation, roofing materials and other building products, on Wednesday said it swung to a first-quarter loss, hurt by weak demand and lower selling prices on some products amid a difficult housing environment.
Quarterly loss totaled $15 million, or 12 cents per share, compared with a profit of $1 million, or a penny per share last year. Excluding one-time items such as an impairment charge for selling some assets in Belgium, net income was 7 cents per share.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial, on average, predicted a profit of 2 cents per share. Analysts' estimates exclude one-time items.
Revenue rose 20 percent to $1.35 billion from $1.12 billion last year. Sales were helped by its acquisition of Saint-Gobain's reinforcements and composite fabrics business in November 2007, the company said.
Analysts expected revenue of $1.2 billion.
The company said it had weaker demand and lower selling prices for residential insulation amid a difficult housing environment. It also faced higher energy and raw material prices in its roofing and asphalt business.
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