NewMarket Corporation (NYSE:NEU) Q1 2022 Earnings Conference Call April 28, 2022 3:15 PM ET
Company Participants
Brian Paliotti - Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Operator
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the NewMarket Corporation Conference Call and Webcast to review First Quarter 2022 Financial Results. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode.
It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chief Financial Officer, Brian Paliotti. Sir, the floor is yours.
Brian Paliotti
Thank you, Mathew, and thanks to everyone for joining me this afternoon. As a reminder, some of the statements made during this conference call maybe forward-looking. Relevant factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those forward-looking statements are contained in our earnings release and in our SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-K.
During this call, I may also discuss the non-GAAP financial measure included in our earnings release. The earnings release which can be found on our website includes a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to the comparable GAAP financial measure.
It contains significantly more detail on the operations and performance of our company. Please take the time to review it. I will be referring to the data that was included in last night's earnings. Net income was $59.3 million or $5.75 a share compared to the net income of $69.7 million or $6.38 a share for the first quarter of last year. Petroleum additives net sales for the first three months of 2022 were a record $660.3 million, compared to $564.9 million for the same period in 2021, or an increase of 16.9%. Sales increased $95.4 million, mainly due to increased selling prices and increased shipments. Shipments increased 2.3% between periods with increases in both lubricant additives and fuel additive shipments across all regions, except Asia-Pacific, which reported decreases in both lubricant additive and fuel additive shipments.
Petroleum additives operating profit for the quarter was $86.9 million lower than the first quarter operating profit of last year of $94.1 million. The decrease was mainly due to higher raw material cost and overall operating costs partially offset by increased selling prices and shipments. The operating margin was 13.2% for the first quarter. While operating profit and margin were below last year's first quarter, they both showed significant improvements over last quarter, the fourth quarter of 2021. Margin management will continue to be a priority in 2022 as we see continuing upward pressure on all operating costs.