Delek US Holdings 3Q profit jumps 24 percent

For the three months ended Sept. 30, Delek posted net income of $25.4 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with profit of $20.4 million, or 38 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, expected profit of 38 cents per share.

Included in the results was a $4 million pre-tax gain on the sale of real estate and an $8.7 million mark-to-market pre-tax gain associated with ethanol swap agreements.

Analysts estimated the real estate sale added 5 cents per share to the quarter's results, while the ethanol swaps added 10 cents per share. Stripping out those items, that would put its adjusted quarterly profit at 32 cents per share, which was below the Wall Street estimate. Analysts typically exclude one-time gains from their estimates.

Revenue rose 37 percent to $1.46 billion, from $1.07 billion in the year-ago period.

Delek US Holdings, a unit of Israel's Delek Group, said its results in the quarter benefited from an increase in the crack spread, or difference in price between crude oil and refined products, as the price of oil fell sharply, and from the continued use of ethanol in its retail and refining segments.

The refining margin was $12.16 per barrel sold, compared with $10.45 per barrel sold for the same quarter last year. Barrels sold per day rose 5 percent to 55,854 in the quarter, from 53,177 last year.

Supply shortages stemming from Hurricanes Ike and Gustav hurt fuel sales at many retail locations in September, the company said.

Retail fuel margin jumped 57 percent to 23.9 cents per gallon. That helped partially offset an 8.9 percent same-store decline in the total number of retail gallons sold in the quarter. Same-store merchandise sales fell 7.6 percent, which the company blamed on regional fuel supply shortages during September and a reduction in discretionary consumer spending.