Deltic Timber Sees Fourth Quarter Loss, Full Year Profits Down

Deltic Timber Corp. posted a $208,000 fourth quarter net loss, but pulled a full year profit of $2.66 million, down from $12.4 million one year ago.

The El Dorado-based timber and real estate firm blamed tough housing market conditions for its poor fourth quarter and declining year.

“Despite the continued weak markets for dimension lumber and residential real estate caused by the low level of housing starts and excess single family homes for sale in the United States, Deltic’s excellent portfolio of assets produced both positive net income and respectable cash flows for yet another year,” said CEO Ray Dillon. “We did not sell all of the hardwood bottomland acreage planned for 2011, as we kept this sales activity at the level the market would absorb, while maintaining the average sales price received per acre.”

“Having our Mills segment generate positive operating income in this lumber market environment was quite an accomplishment. The slight loss for the fourth quarter was largely the result of timing. Good logging conditions existed for much of the year and allowed us to complete a large percentage of our annual timber harvest in the first three quarters of the year, and we closed on the sale of a significant commercial real estate site back in the second quarter,” Dillon added.

Lightly-traded shares of Deltic Timber closed Wednesday down $3.20 to $66.35. The company’s shares have traded as low as $46.89 and as high as $76.03 in the last year.